We paint commercial and community premises in Hackleton, a village about 4.7 miles south-east of Northampton town centre on the B526. The work is small-scale and varied: the village shop and post office, the butcher's, the White Hart, the village hall, the primary school and the Baptist chapel. Each job is planned around opening hours, bookings or term dates.
A short list of premises, each one different
Hackleton has no business park or parade of shops. Its commercial life is on Main Road: Hackleton Stores, which is the post office and grocery, and the butcher’s shop attached to No. 84. Beyond those, the working buildings are the White Hart, the village hall and its annexe, the primary school and pre-school, and the Carey Memorial Baptist Chapel. The Neighbourhood Plan warns that the parish could become purely residential, and supports keeping the businesses it has. A shop or pub that looks cared for from the road plays a small part in that.
Because there are so few premises, no two jobs here look alike. A listed 18th-century pub, a Victorian school building and a modern shop interior need different preparation, different paints and different scheduling.
Listed buildings that still trade
Two of the commercial premises are Grade II listed. The White Hart dates from the mid to late 18th century and is built of limestone and ironstone in bands, with casement windows and a six-panel door under a gabled hood on brackets. The butcher’s is part of Number 84, dated 1754, and is a single-storey shop with a large hipped bay window facing the road.
Painting these is maintenance on listed joinery. The banded stone stays bare, so we mask and cut in by hand around it and paint only the timber. Colour changes or alterations to windows, doors or shopfronts can need listed building consent, so we keep to the existing scheme unless the owner has that agreed with West Northamptonshire Council. Both buildings front the busy B526, so work on the frontage is done from a marked area on the footway, with pedestrians and traffic checked before access equipment goes up. The butcher’s bay window has its own page on shopfront painting.
Inside a pub or food shop, the main concerns are low-odour paints, keeping the trading floor usable, and finishes that can be cleaned often. We agree working times and the order of rooms with the owner before we start.
Hall, school and chapel
The community buildings run on a timetable. The Dudley Winterbottom Memorial Hall on Chapel Lane started as an infants’ school in 1866, and its main hall was added in 1927. The red-brick school with stone bands opened in 1877. The Baptist chapel was rebuilt in 1888. Halls are usually painted between bookings, and school work fits into the holidays. Chapel work needs to stay clear of services and other events.
These are Victorian and early 20th-century buildings, and their brick is usually left bare. Outside, the jobs are the painted stone dressings, the gable timbers and the window joinery. Inside, any ceiling out of reach from steps calls for a tower, and walls in busy rooms suit scrubbable, low-odour finishes. Chapel Lane is narrow, so we plan van access and the delivery of access equipment in advance.
Arranging a commercial job in the village
For any of these premises, it helps to start with a walk-round. We note what can be done while you are open, what needs a room or frontage closed, and how long coatings need before people can use the space again. If the building is listed, we also note anything that may need consent.
Our main commercial painting page covers offices, shops and larger premises across Northampton. The Hackleton page describes the village’s buildings and how we work there.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
