From squirrels to streakers, David Baron has seen all kinds of Carlisle life.

David is a window cleaner who works largely in the city centre. For 37 years he has observed its people and buildings through gleaming glass.

“I was 20 when I started,” he says. “I thought I was just going to do it ’til a proper job came along! I just did residential to start with, just knocking on doors. Over the years I’ve picked up businesses. It’s nearly all businesses now.”

He has witnessed some memorable things while keeping Carlisle clean. “A few years ago I was working at Chivers on Abbey Street, about six in the morning.

"A pair of streakers came across the grass at the castle, a man and a woman.”

Naturists, and nature. “There’s one or two grey squirrels on English Street and Fisher Street. There was a bat lying in the doorway of Topshop one morning. I put it in the cathedral grounds. I think it had flown into the glass. I must have cleaned it too well!”

For many years David started work at 4.30am to clean the windows of large city centre shops – inside as well as out – before they opened.

His biggest job was Marks & Spencer on English Street. But in the past five years most national shops have started employing national cleaning companies.

David’s working day now begins between 6.30 and 7. Still early enough to feel the chill of winter. “You’d think you’d get used to it after 37 years. But it still stings. There’s good aspects to all the seasons. Sunrises and flocks of geese in the mornings. Rain makes no difference to the job unless it’s absolutely extreme.”

He says the job is still enjoyable, particularly being his own boss and meeting people.

“When I was younger I was quite shy. I wouldn’t communicate with people really. I do enjoy meeting people now.

“It’s surprising how many holidaymakers there are. They ask where I would recommend. I tell them the castle, the cathedral, Tullie House, certain cafés.

“People stop and have a crack. You see the same people at the same time. A lot of the time you just say ‘Morning’. You don’t know them as such. Quite a few people have passed away now. They suddenly stop going by.”

In the days of 4.30am starts David would be greeted by clubb-ers returning home.

“I’d be on the ladder and the girls would ask ‘What’s it like up there?’”

He rarely uses a ladder now, thanks to tools that reach higher. And these days David has an apprentice.

“My granddaughter is eight. She enjoys coming out with me in school holidays. She’s got her own little pole and washer.

“She soaps the windows up. She likes collecting the money!”

David feels Carlisle has changed for the better, with the western bypass taking traffic out of the centre. He has spent nearly all his life in the city. “When I was 16 I lived in London for a year with my family. I was pleased to get back home. I like the open spaces. We’re so close to the countryside.”

Finally, has he ever seen anything unexpected, perhaps while cleaning bedroom windows? “I always shut my eyes!” he claims. “I have. But it’s like doctors. You’ve got to keep confidentiality.”