80 Year Old Window Cleaner Retires

Coventry window cleaner retires after 55 years: FRANK Flood has just hung up his chamois leather and tin bucket after more than half-a-century of keeping the windows of Coventry clean. The hardy 80-year-old, who started his own round at the tender age of 25, admitted that he’d “seen some sights” while doing the job he loved. But being the soul of discretion he refused to reveal what. Frank, who lives in Ferndale Road, Binley Woods, set up a mini window washing empire in the 1950s with his dad James who’d been a familiar figure in the city during the Second World War. The business then grew and grew, taking on the windows of many of the city centre’s big businesses including The Telegraph’s former office in Hertford Street. At one stage the firm employed eight men, with work stretching to Leamington and Nuneaton. When he left school Frank went to work in a garage, before going on to enjoy a 12-year stint with the Royal Navy. When he first switched to the world of windows he said he found it difficult to get up at 5am in all weathers. But he quickly added that the early starts and the topsy-turvy British weather were things he came to enjoy. The dad of four said he was sad that he was no longer up to the job.
But after his wife, Nora, died in February he said would now have to take it easy. Keeping the firm in the family his daughter, Teresa, now runs things from her home in Leicestershire. Frank said: “It’s a pretty physically demanding job. “In the old days, before all the health and safety regulations, we’d be up and down ladders all day. “It’s a job that’s kept me fit all my life, as you’re exercising all the time. “And of course you get to know everybody, as you end up cleaning the windows of the sons and daughters of original customers. “I’m going to miss all the people, so I’ll make sure I go into town from time to time to catch up. “But a lot has changed. There are a lot of cutbacks, people don’t seem as bothered as they did about clean windows. “And of course we’re not allowed on ladders anymore - we use a long hose-brush to reach high windows. “But all along there have been no tricks of the trade, just hard work and having time for people - which is what I’ll miss most.”