Window cleaner John hangs up bucket after 50 years up and down ladders
A veteran window cleaner has put away his ladders and bucket for the last time – at the age of 76.
John Butler has spent more than half a century sponging down people's windows but his son Gary will carry on the family tradition with his own cleaning business.
The sprightly grandfather-of-three from Cannock has kept fit by swimming and working out at the gym five times a week for the last 16 years, a regime he plans to carry on.
No wonder then he has never had any joint problems or aches and pains despite continuing to use ladders instead of the modern pole system of window cleaning.
The price per house when he first started out, under the old monetary system, was half-a-crown, compared with £7.50 today, and he would often have to return later for the money if people were out.
He said it was a job that relied on people's honesty as far as payment was concerned but that the householders of Cannock, Chadsmoor and Hednesford, where he plied his trade, always handed over the cash.
He also saw some saucy sights when cleaning upstairs windows, he laughs. "But that didn't stop me – I'd just carry on cleaning. I could write a book – but you don't tell, you keep those things to yourself."
John, of Apollo Close, Cannock, gave up his job in the building trade with Bryants to start up his window-cleaning empire.
"The council were building a new housing estate in Chadsmoor and to earn a bit extra, I'd offer to mow people's lawns or help them with their drives.
"With my brother and nephew we also started cleaning windows and soon I got enough business to go full-time.
"There were no blades and purified water in those days - just my leather mop and galvanised bucket. I had the hard graft, now it's easy.
"But the one thing that never changed was the people – they are what I'll miss most about retiring. I want to thank them for giving me a nice living. The women were always the best payers. Some of the husbands didn't even know they had a window cleaner.
"The main thing you had to have was enthusiasm. I was always up at 6.30am and out the door by 7.30am. If you didn't love the job, it would be too easy to have an extra hour in bed. My customers used to say I got them up in the mornings.
"The only down side to the job would be the hot weather. When you put soapy water on a window when it was 70F, it would have dried before you had the chance to wipe it off."
John introduced his son, now 49, to the business when he was 13, picking him up from school and taking him on the round.
When Gary was 21, he set him up in his own company, with father and son operating separately. But they always met up for a drink and a game of pool at the local club on a Friday.
"It was Gary who said I shouldn't be climbing ladders at my age," said John.
"Everyone told me I was too old but I didn't feel it – I still don't. But I won't be idle. I'll still be going to the gym five times a week, and I've already made a start on the garden."
He added: "Gary comes and does my solar panels and plastic fascias now - for free."
John said health and safety regulations had also put the dampeners on any ambition to carry on in the job.
"You're not supposed to climb ladders these days, not like when I started out. In those days, everyone had wooden ladders, which were very heavy. Aluminium ladders were a lot easier.
"Now, with these poles that reach the upstairs, window cleaners never get off the ground. They even have special equipment to clear the gutters, with cameras on top of the poles.
"But that wasn't for me. I kept my ladders to the end."
Gary, who went straight into the business from school, said: "I've been doing it for 31 years myself but now I've just taken the work on from my dad as well.
"I'm trying to fit it all in with my business and keep all of his customers happy too.
"I've met quite a few of them before when dad has been away and I've dropped in to cover for him, so I'm not a stranger to anyone but some of them I haven't seen for 10 to 15 years.
"Some of them have told me that I actually look like my dad from when he was younger – I'm the spitting image of him so it's like him from a few years ago coming back."
Fifty years ago when he was trying to drum up trade, John even persuaded his wife Jean to lend a hand. Their daughter Dawn, too, has joined him on the round.
Now Gary's son Jamie, aged 19, looks like being the third generation of Butlers to join the business.
"He's got his own van," said John. "It would be great if the family window cleaning tradition was passed down."
