Gran who hit robber with walking stick shuts Staffordshire shop after 50 years

June Turner is shutting the Staffordshire newsagents she has run since 1975 after the business struggled to pick up after Covid.A super-gran who became a national hero after she battered a robber with her walking stick has been forced to close the Staffordshire shop she has run for more than 50 years.June Turner, 89, was behind the till of the newsagents in September 2019 when Aaron Mountford stormed in demanding cash at around 6.30am. June refused to hand over any money and began going “hell for leather” with her walking stick.Read MoreCCTV captured brave June jabbing Mountford with the aluminium stick before clobbering him over the head as he lunged for the till. After shoving her to the floor, Mountford fled AJ and J Newsagents in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, with just £50 and cigarettes. Mountford, who was 28 at the time, was later caught and jailed for two years after he admitted robbery.June Turner, 89, was behind the till of the newsagents in September 2019 when Aaron Mountford stormed in demanding cash at around 6.30am. | SWNS / AJ and J NewsagentsJune is now being forced to shut up her newsagents she has run since 1975 after the business struggled to pick up after Covid. The wide-spread demolition of houses nearby as part of a major regeneration project also destroyed regular passing trade.She said: “I will miss it, despite my daily 4am alarm call but we’ve got to go sometime haven’t we? It’s been marvellous.” Recalling her heroics when she fought off Mountford with her trusty walking stick, she told the BBC: “I just hit him on his back and up his bum! I just smacked him. He really had it.” Her fearless actions later earned her a £250 High Sheriff’s award for bravery. Speaking at the time, June said: “I acted on instinct really. I thought there’s no way he’s having the money we work so hard to make. I wish I’d had something a bit harder with me, so I could have finished him off and knocked him out. “I don’t really know what was going through my head but I knew I had to defend our business by any means necessary. I was determined to protect myself and our shop.” June, who runs the shop with her only son Alan, 69, closed for the final time on Friday 31 July. Alan, who started working as a paperboy when he was 13, said the business has struggled in recent years. He told the BBC: “All round here was full of terrace properties and it’s taken 15 years before they’ve actually started rebuilding again and bringing the communities back. But habits have changed during that time, and it’s just one of those things.” Reflecting on his time working with his mum, he said: “On the whole it’s been really good memories. We’ve had lots of fun and lots of laughs. I started when I was 13 as a paper boy here before we had the business, and I’m still doing papers now. I think I must be the oldest newspaper boy in the country.”