We repaint shopfronts and pub frontages in Hanslope, the MK19 village about 8.9 miles south of Northampton. The village has a small cluster of businesses on Gold Street and the High Street, several in historic painted buildings inside the conservation area, and Dean plans each job around opening hours and traffic.
The village’s shops and pubs
Hanslope’s frontages split between two streets and one outlier. Gold Street has red-brick shops, the SPAR (its building dates from 1921) and the butchers and greengrocer, beside Hanslope News in the painted brick of the old telephone exchange. Along the High Street, a takeaway trades from a white-painted former shop next to the 1828 Methodist Chapel, with the Cock (a 1930s red-brick rebuild) and the Club close by. The Watts Arms sits apart on Castlethorpe Road.
Each of those frontages asks something different of a painter:
| Building type | Typical painted surfaces | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Red brick shop | Fascia board, window frames, door, stallriser | Keep paint off the brick face |
| Painted brick premises | Whole elevation plus joinery | Identify the existing coating first |
| Pub frontage | Walls, sign board, windows, doors | Large areas, long opening hours |
Working beside the main road
Gold Street is part of the village’s main north-south road, a route that carries much of the Hanslope Park traffic at both ends of the working day. That shapes when we work. Ladders and a small tower go up after the morning peak and come down before the evening one, with barriers and signs on the pavement while anyone is at height. Deliveries and parking are kept away from your customers’ spaces.
Inside those hours we fit around your trade. Most businesses here cannot close, so we agree an order of work in advance, keep the entrance usable and do the doorway at a quiet time, with wet paint signs where hands might reach. Outside paint needs dry weather, so we would rather move a shift than put a coat on before rain. Gold Street’s buildings face straight onto the pavement and the through-route, so road spray and grime from passing traffic collect on stallrisers and lower frames; those are washed down and keyed before any primer goes on, or the new coat will not hold.
Painted brick in a protected setting
Several of these buildings lie inside the conservation area, and Policy HAN5 of the neighbourhood plan aims to keep the village’s shops and pubs in commercial use. A repaint in the same colour is normally simple, but a new colour scheme or a change to the frontage on a historic building may need the council’s agreement before anyone picks up a brush.
White-painted brick and stone, like the Watts Arms, and painted brick such as Hanslope News, need a breathable masonry finish that suits whatever is already on the wall, because sealing old brick and stone can trap damp and push the paint off. On red brick shops, the work is usually confined to the timber and metal: fascia board, frames, doors and stallriser, cut in cleanly against the brick.
Pubs and the Club
Pub frontages are bigger jobs than a shop window, and they trade into the evening and at weekends. We can split the work into sections so the front door and any outside seating stay usable, and plan the noisiest preparation for the hours before opening. The Club on the High Street is painted brick and stone with flat-roofed rear extensions, a combination of masonry and roof-edge timber that is worth surveying as a whole.
For how we run commercial frontages generally, see our main shopfront painting service and the wider commercial painting page. Everything else we cover in the village is on the Hanslope page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
