DH Painter & Decorator handles commercial painting in Hanslope, MK19, about 8.9 miles south of Northampton. Dean decorates shop interiors, pubs, community buildings and converted farm units, and plans the work around opening hours and the busy village through-route.
Hanslope’s business premises
Business premises in Hanslope fall into three groups. The first is the handful of shops and pubs in the village centre: the stores on Gold Street, the takeaway, the Cock and the Club on the High Street, and the Watts Arms on Castlethorpe Road. The second is the working buildings outside the centre, chiefly the industrial estate and converted farm units at Cuckoo Hill Farm, other farm conversions used as offices and light industry, and the equestrian centre off Castlethorpe Road. The third is the community buildings, covered further down.
The neighbourhood plan’s Policy HAN5 resists the loss of commercial premises and pubs. In practice that means the village keeps its older shop and pub buildings in use, and they need periodic redecoration.
Shops and pubs in historic buildings
Most of the village’s shops and pubs are in older painted or red-brick buildings, and several stand within the conservation area. The Watts Arms dates from 1821 and has a white-painted shell of brick and stone; the Club, opened in 1896, is painted brick and stone with flat-roofed additions at the back; and the Cock was rebuilt in red brick in the 1930s. Inside buildings like these, walls can be solid masonry that needs breathable paint, ceilings may be uneven, and joinery may carry old paint layers. A busy bar or shop floor also needs tough, washable finishes on the areas people touch and brush past.
Timing matters more than usual here. The shops sit on the village’s main north-south road, which fills with Hanslope Park traffic at the start and end of the working day. Inside, we work through the quieter middle of the day or on your closing day, and section the job so trading continues. Outside work on painted frontages is covered by our shopfront painting service.
Converted farm units at Cuckoo Hill
The units at Cuckoo Hill Farm, and other converted farm buildings used as offices and light industry around the parish, are a different kind of job. Farm buildings typically have blockwork walls and steel frames, doors or cladding. That points to:
- sealing or priming bare blockwork, which is porous and soaks up the first coat
- treating rust on steelwork and using a suitable metal primer before topcoats
- hard-wearing paint for floors, walkways and lower walls where trolleys and boots wear the surface
- a lighter colour scheme in units with limited daylight
Where a unit has been fitted out as an office, the job is closer to domestic decorating, with plasterboard walls, ceiling tiles and doors.
Community buildings
Hanslope also has buildings used by the whole village that come up for redecoration. These include the village hall on Newport Road, which was the Top School of 1840 and is built of rough stone and red brick, and the pavilion and community hall at the recreation ground on Castlethorpe Road. Older halls like the former school combine solid walls with heavy use, so breathable but durable paints are the starting point. We can arrange work around bookings so the hall stays available. Hanslope Park, the large FCDO site south-east of the village, is a secure government estate and not part of this local commercial work.
Arranging a visit
We travel from Northampton via the Salcey Forest roads, about 8.9 miles. Our commercial painting page sets out how we handle business premises in general, and the Hanslope page lists the other services we offer in the village. Call Dean on 07539 779 036 to talk through your building.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
