Even if you don't live in Upperby you may well have enjoyed McCall's products. This family bakery on Upperby Road supplies businesses across the city and further afield.

These include Cumbria's Museum of Military Life at Carlisle Castle, Genco's Sandwich Bar on Newtown Road, The Bobbin in Shaddongate, Houghton Stores, Scotby Post Office and Eden Stores in Armathwaite.

"I don't approach anybody," says Mally McCall, who owns the business with his wife Lesley. "They come to me. It's word of mouth, which is quite flattering."

McCall's makes sandwiches, rolls, baguettes, pies, pasties, sausage rolls, wraps and cakes. There's been a baker here for decades and it has been in the McCall family since 1984. That's when Mally's mother Gillian bought the business from Ken Brown. Mally had worked at Ken's Botchergate shop since leaving school.

He then began working at his mother's shop, which he and Lesley took on in 1998. Mally says: "Our most popular items are the steak pie, sausage rolls, and minced beef pie.

"We supply one of the Carlisle United supporters' buses with up to 30 minced beef pies. We deliver them to the bus at Brunton Park when they're setting off for away matches. We get people coming in saying 'Can I have one of those pies I got on the football coach?'"

Mally says supermarkets have hit his bread trade, although regular customers travel from Stanwix and Morton for it. "We had somebody from Ainstable who asked us to do 50 loaves. I think he must have tried them at the Armathwaite shop. He must have a big freezer!

"We sometimes supply pie and pea suppers. I'm doing 160 lots of pie, peas and gravy for a do soon."

As well as supermarkets, bakery chains such as Greggs have also impacted on independents like McCall's. Mally and Lesley have moved with the times, introducing products including salad boxes, pasta boxes and sausage rolls with tomato sausage.

"We compete with the quality of our ingredients," says Mally. "I think people realise the smaller places are the best quality."

His shop has diversified by selling newspapers and groceries since the newsagent across the road closed several years ago. McCall's also benefits from having three schools - Upperby, Bishop Goodwin and St Margaret Mary's - nearby. "They come in here first thing in the morning and in the afternoon."

For Mally, first thing in the morning is 3.20. That's what time he gets up, six days a week. He starts work at 3.45. "You get used to it," he says. "I've been doing it that long."

The early shift also includes Mally's and Lesley's son Mark, who has worked here since leaving school nine years ago. "I'd like to think Mark might take it on one day," says his dad. "My daughter did the sensible thing and got a job with Armstrong Watson!

"I'm 55. I'll be doing a few more years. I don't think Lesley will want to do that many more."

Lesley's speciality is cakes, some of which are displayed on the shop's Facebook page to great acclaim. They include one topped with chocolates and surrounded by KitKats. "That's created quite a bit of interest," says Mally.