DH Painter & Decorator covers Greens Norton from our Northampton base, about 8.5 miles south-west of the town centre and just over a mile north-west of Towcester. Dean paints and decorates the village's listed stone cottages, the farmhouses at Caswell and Duncote, and its modern houses, choosing systems that suit each.
A stone village south-west of Northampton
Greens Norton is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, in the NN12 postcode with Towcester as its post town. The parish takes in the hamlets of Caswell and Duncote, and at the 2011 census had 1,526 residents. Its centre is a run of limestone and ironstone cottages along High Street, Bengal Lane and Blakesley Hill, grouped round St Bartholomew’s church, whose spire can be seen for miles around. The name comes from Sir Henry de Grene, who bought the manor in the 14th century; before that it was simply Norton.
For a painter and decorator, the village is defined by its building stone. The oldest houses are rubble walls with no cavity, timber lintels over small casements and plain-tile roofs, some of which replaced thatch. Newer houses and extensions sit alongside them, and the two need quite different paint systems. Knowing which is which before quoting is most of the job.
The houses, era by era
| Period | What you find | What it means for decorating |
|---|---|---|
| Late 17th century | Cottage rows and small manors, such as 2 to 8 Blakesley Hill (1694), Bengal Manor (1695) and Falcon Manor (1665 datestone) | Solid rubble walls needing breathable finishes; old beams indoors; timber lintels to check for rot |
| 18th century | Two-storey cottages, some with attics, on High Street and Bengal Lane; Brookside Cottage still thatched | Small casements and eyebrow dormers; painted rubble on a few houses, such as 1 and 3 Blakesley Hill |
| Early 19th century | Village houses such as 24 High Street (1805), with chamfered brick window jambs | Brick and stone together; keep paint to the parts already painted |
| 1839 to 1844 | Grafton estate model farms at Caswell and Field Burcote | 12-pane sashes with stone keyblocks, deep overhanging eaves under hipped slate roofs |
| 20th century onwards | Red brick additions to older cottages, and modern houses | Standard masonry, plaster and woodwork systems |
Listed buildings, but no conservation area
Greens Norton does not appear on West Northamptonshire Council’s list of conservation area appraisals. Heritage control here comes from listing instead: the parish has 27 listed buildings, with St Bartholomew’s church at Grade I and the other 26 at Grade II. They include many of the older cottages on Blakesley Hill, High Street and Bengal Lane, The Old Rectory on Towcester Road, Falcon Manor, and the farmhouses at Caswell and Field Burcote.
Listing covers the whole building, inside and out. Redecorating in the same colour and finish is generally treated differently from changing them, but painting bare stone, changing joinery colours or removing historic finishes may need listed building consent. We suggest owners of listed houses check with the council before anything other than like-for-like work, and we can set out what the job involves so that is easy.
Outside: joinery, lintels and painted stone
Most of the stone frontages in the village are bare coursed ironstone and limestone, and that is part of what makes them listed. They should normally stay unpainted, and we will say so if asked to paint one. Exterior work on these houses is mainly about the woodwork: two- and three-light casements, plank and part-glazed doors and the timber lintels recorded over windows on almost every listed cottage. Lintels are probed for soft timber at the bearing ends before painting and finished in a microporous paint that lets them dry out. Our exterior painting page goes into the process.
Some walls are already painted, such as the coursed rubble at 1 and 3 Blakesley Hill and the 19th-century painted brick extension at 34 High Street. Those need breathable mineral or limewash-type systems, often after removing failing modern coatings, never a plastic-film masonry paint that holds water in the stone. Painted stone dressings, like the lintels and keyblocks at Falcon Manor, need the same care, kept off the bare ironstone around them. The render and masonry painting page covers breathable systems in more depth.
The model farms are a different job again. Their deep overhanging eaves under hipped slate roofs mean painting soffits from a tower or scaffold, and their 12-pane sashes sit over stone keyblocks that must be protected. Thatched cottages with eyebrow dormers need light, careful access that keeps ladders off the thatch. In this open, rural setting on rising ground, we plan outdoor work for settled weather; our guide to the exterior painting season explains how.
Inside the cottages
Indoors, the older houses have solid stone walls, low ceilings and old timber. An interior beam at 4 Blakesley Hill is dated 1654. Lime plaster on those walls takes breathable emulsions, clay or mineral paints, or limewash; vinyl emulsion can trap damp and blister. Attic rooms have sloping ceilings and small windows, staircases in the cottage ranges are narrow and steep, and almost no wall is plumb, which matters for wallpaper. The larger houses, such as The Old Rectory, have more generous rooms and a mix of mullion, cross and sash windows, so one house can need several joinery approaches. See our interior painting page for the general process.
Village premises
Commercial work in Greens Norton is small and individual: the village shop, the post office, the butcher, Greens Norton Medical Practice, the village hall on High Street (once the village school), and the community centre. The Butchers Arms was saved by local volunteers, reopened in 2017 and has since been overhauled and enlarged, so it combines older fabric with newer extension plaster and joinery. Work on any of these is planned around opening times.
Getting here and planning the job
We drive out from Northampton, about 8.5 miles, and also cover Caswell and Duncote, which are reached by rural roads outside the village. Many cottages stand in rows, so mid-row houses may have no rear access and everything comes through the front. The parish council publishes road closures for utility works, such as on Mill Lane, which we check before booking. Quotes here separate the historic stone core of a house from any modern extension, because the materials differ. For a sense of what affects price, read our painter and decorator cost guide, then call Dean on 07539 779 036 for a free quote.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
