Rothbury butcher at centre of Raoul Moat coverage

Situated at the heart of the Northumberland village of Rothbury, owner Morris Adamson has been hosting TV crews and journalists thanks to the shop's central location, and its early opening hours.

"The shop has a good view of the village so the TV people have used it to film here, providing a background for their reports and interviewing me as well," says Adamson.

Along with a local newsagents, the butchers is the only store to open at 6am, which has brought in breakfast news crews. Sky TV news crews and Radio 5 Live have broadcast interviews with Adamson.

The shop suffered at first when a two-mile exclusion zone was implemented around the village. "Police were walking around with megaphones telling people to get off the streets and close their windows and doors. It was like a ghost town," says Adamson.

However, after nearly zero takings, Adamson is now selling bacon sandwiches to reporters during the week from the attached deli – "we can barely keep up with demand". The shop is renowned for its sausages, and these have started to move again, as well as steaks, according to Adamson. Locals are starting to come back, but in small numbers.

"There’s no doubt that in the long term we’ll benefit from the publicity," says Adamson. "However, we’d rather earn publicity for something positive than for this."

Adamson has a child still in school due to the lock-down there, and the events have hit the village hard. "People have been asking me if things are back to normal, but how normal can it be when you have two policemen outside your store holding sub-machine guns?" he asks.

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