DH Painter repaints shopfronts in Earls Barton, whose centre lies 6.4 miles east of Northampton. The shops are clustered on The Square and High Street, some in Grade II listed buildings with 20th century fronts, with the Premier store on Station Road. We plan each job around trading and around any consent the building needs.
A small high street with listed fronts
Earls Barton’s shops are concentrated in a few places. The Square, the small market square near All Saints’ Church, has a pharmacy and the M and J Greatorex shop. High Street has L Green and Sons at No. 40. Station Road has the Premier store with its post office counter. Two of them are in listed buildings. Number 40 and the M and J Greatorex Shop on The Square is Grade II listed as a house and shop with a 20th century shopfront. L Green and Sons is a Grade II former inn, the Fox and Hounds, now a home and shop.
That makes repainting a shopfront here different from a parade of modern units. The fronts are generally timber, painted, often with a fascia meant for painted lettering, set into older lias buildings. They are part of the Earls Barton Conservation Area, where 28 buildings are listed in all.
Colour, consent and the fascia board
Repainting a listed shopfront in its existing colours is routine maintenance. A new colour scheme, a different finish or a new fascia design on a listed building may need listed building consent, and in the conservation area North Northamptonshire Council will also consider how the front looks alongside its neighbours. We suggest you speak to the council before choosing colours. Dean can photograph and record the current scheme to take with you, and can work to whatever is approved.
On the timber itself, the usual work is:
- cutting back flaking paint on the stallriser and cill, which take splashback from the pavement;
- checking joints and the bottom rails of doors for soft timber;
- priming bare wood and building up coats on mouldings without filling the detail;
- masking around existing lettering if the fascia is not being repainted.
Where the shopfront meets lias stonework, we keep paint off the stone. A painted edge on soft limestone is hard to reverse. Shop doors in daily use get a harder-wearing top coat on the push areas and kick rail, and we leave them propped open with a sign until the paint is dry enough to handle.
Working around a shared square
The Square is small, and the shops, pubs and church around it share the same kerbside, so van parking is limited at busy times. The buildings stand on the footway, so our ladders and towers stand on the pavement outside your door. To keep that manageable:
- we agree start and finish times with you, usually doing the door and entrance either first or last;
- we bring materials in during quieter periods and keep the footway clear;
- wet paint signs go up wherever customers might touch fresh paint;
- we work in short sections so trading can continue.
Exterior paint needs dry weather, so if rain is forecast we would rather move a day than put on a coat that will spoil.
Station Road and other village premises
Outside the Square, shopfront-type work in Earls Barton includes the Premier store on Station Road and the frontages of converted buildings, such as the former Baptist church that is now a children’s nursery and the former Lloyds bank that is now The Saxon Tavern. Interiors in larger premises, such as the Barker factory on Station Road, come under our commercial painting service. The main shopfront painting page explains how a repaint is planned, and our Earls Barton page covers the village as a whole.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
