Rob Stainer checks a carpet as it comes off the loom at Wilton Carpet Factory, which is still going strong after more than 300 years. DA2646P3Katharine Lawley on the changing face of business

FROM wool to Woolworth's, from farming to Friends Provident and from Spitfire parts and the Scout car to software - Salisbury's business community has always thrived.

The city and its surroundings have seen momentous changes - most notably the decline in farming and manufacturing and the rise of the service sector.

Today the city's big employers are Friends Provident, pension companies James Hay - occupying the former Dunn's Seeds warehouse - and Personal Pension Management, solicitors, banks, accountants, and retailers.

When the Journal started, the workforce was more likely to be engaged in the woollen trade, brewing, tanning, rearing livestock or growing corn.

The city has boasted a cattle market since 1227 and this has occupied the Market Square and the site on which Waitrose stands. It is now based at Netherhampton.

Fisherton Mill was a corn mill since the time of the Domesday Book, working until 1965, and the corn exchange was where the city's library is today.

Castle Street was the centre of the woollen trade, the Salisbury Woolstore being demolished in the 1960s and replaced with the sale rooms of auctioneers Woolley & Wallis.

The 15th century house of a wool merchant is now the Odeon Cinema.

The Wilton Carpet Factory is still making high quality carpets, 300 years after the weave technique was first developed.

Brewing was a major industry, with Gibbs Mew in Gigant Street - now a residential development - and the Old Brewery in Castle Street - now Tesco.

The city's first electricity was produced by water power from the power station, which is now the Mill pub, and gas was piped from the Gas Works in the St Paul's area of the city.

In the 20th century, aircraft and motor vehicles came to the fore along with numerous allied industries.

Alongside Churchfields Road was the factory which made Scout cars, lorries and buses from 1902 to 1922.

In the 1940s, Old Sarum Airfield was used to fly out Spitfires, which were assembled in Castle Road by the side of the present Rugby Club.

The city's first railway station was at Milford in 1847 with engine sheds established at Churchfields in 1901.

These are now gone, the site having been used as a business park since 1966.

The Churchill Way ring road was built in 1969, bringing more tourists to stay at hotels such as the Red Lion and shoppers to family businesses like outfitters Chas H Baker and emporia like Woolworth's and Waitrose.