We paint render and masonry in Flore, about 6.7 miles west of Northampton in NN7. Inside the 2018 conservation area the work is mostly limewashing or mineral-painting the white lime-rendered and whitewashed cottages; acrylic masonry paint is kept for modern rendered houses beyond the boundary.
Most Flore walls should stay unpainted
This is a page that starts by saying no. The bulk of the historic village is coursed ironstone, marlstone and some Blisworth limestone, laid in lime mortar, with local red brick from the Georgian and Victorian rebuilding. Those walls were built to take in damp and dry it out again. A coat of standard masonry paint seals the face, holds moisture behind it and blisters within a few winters, taking stone face with it. The conservation area appraisal also prizes the colour of the bare stone. If someone suggests painting or rendering over an ironstone front in Flore, the honest answer is that it harms the wall, and cladding with render in the conservation area needs planning permission in any case.
Where a stone wall is genuinely failing, with eroded joints or crumbling faces, that is a repointing or masonry job for a specialist in lime, not something paint will hide.
Keeping the white cottages white
The exception is the group of cottages that have always been white. The appraisal notes that lime render in Flore is universally coloured white, and the listing entries describe whitewashed ironstone rubble at Adams Cottage on Kings Lane and a white-painted thatched cottage at Marsh Cottage. Refreshing walls like these means matching what is already there:
- Brushing down loose, powdery limewash and any algae, rather than pressure washing soft lime.
- Damping the wall so the new coat does not dry too fast.
- Several thin coats of limewash, or a breathable mineral paint where the surface already carries one, in white.
- Protecting thatch eaves, timber lintels and old window frames as we go.
Limewash looks chalky and slightly uneven when finished, which is the point. It is the finish these cottages were given, and it lets the wall breathe. With 44 Grade II entries and one Grade II* in the parish, we confirm listed status before any change of finish.
Cob: rare, protected, and specialist first
Flore still has cob, which is rare and protected here. Oldways on The Green is a cob house, and the boundary wall south of No. 24 Sutton Street is a Grade II listed cob wall of the late 18th or early 19th century. Cob is earth, and it fails fast if it is sealed or kept wet. Any coating on it must be lime-based. If the base is eroding, or water is getting in from the top, the wall needs a specialist before a painter touches it, and we will say so rather than coat over the problem.
Damp at the bottom of the hill
The village sits on a south-facing slope that runs down to the River Nene floodplain, and the pasture south of Nether Lane is mostly floodplain. Rendered plinths and base courses on the lower lanes, including the foot of Chapel Street, can hold moisture. We test with a meter before painting low walls and leave a wet base course to dry rather than trap the damp.
Modern render north of the High Street
Rendered panels on the 20th-century houses along Brockhall Road, The Crescent and Collins Hill, and render on the newer homes at the northern edge, are a normal masonry job: fungicidal wash, crack repair, stabiliser on chalky areas and two coats of a quality masonry paint. Our main render and masonry painting page sets out that process, the guide to painting render and roughcast covers textured finishes, and the Flore area page gives the wider picture of the village.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
