Dean paints house exteriors in Hartwell, NN7, a village on the Buckinghamshire border about 6.5 miles south of Northampton town centre. Work ranges from breathable finishes on old limestone cottages around Hartwell Green to fascias, windows, doors and walls on the 1930s to 1970s housing at Salcey Avenue, Salcey Close and Lower End.
Hartwell Green’s stone, and the estates that grew around it
Hartwell is really two building stories laid side by side. The older one sits along the main road through Hartwell Green: 17th and 18th-century cottages and farmhouses in coursed limestone rubble, some thatched, some re-roofed in slate, with brick chimney stacks at the gable ends and timber lintels over doors and windows. The house at 38 Forest Road, dated 1681, is one of the oldest still standing. The newer story starts in 1932 with the first council houses, carries on with 74 post-war houses and flats at Salcey Avenue and Salcey Close, and finishes with the private estates of the 1960s and 70s, including 153 houses from a 1973 consent.
Those two halves need very different exterior work. On the stone cottages the walls and the joinery are separate problems with separate materials. On the estate houses the job is usually a straightforward round of fascias, soffits, windows, front doors and garden timber on homes that are now 50 to 90 years old. Our Hartwell area page sets out the village’s building types in more detail.
Listed cottages on Park Road and Forest Road
Twelve buildings in the parish are listed, and several are cottages on the main road. Old Forge Cottage at 41 Park Road is recorded as painted coursed limestone rubble under thatch, with leaded casements in eyebrow dormers. 52 Park Road is an 18th-century thatched limestone cottage, while the Grade II pair at 4 and 6 Forest Road, put up by the Grafton estate around 1840, still have Gothick iron casements.
For houses like these, three rules guide the exterior:
- Find out what is already on the stone. Old limewash and modern masonry paint behave differently, and stone set in lime mortar needs a finish that lets moisture out. Acrylic paint over soft limestone traps it.
- Stay like-for-like. A different colour or a different paint system on a listed building may need consent from West Northamptonshire Council. Repainting in the same finish is the safe starting point.
- Protect the thatch edge. Woodwork tucked under thatched eaves and around eyebrow dormers needs ladders set so they never bear on the thatch.
Mixed elevations are common too. The 1889 Methodist chapel on Hartwell Green is brick with stone quoins, and many estate-era cottages carry timber porches and projecting wood eaves, so one wall can need two or three primers.
Why forest shade changes the timetable
Salcey Forest runs along the north-east side of the parish, and properties on that side get heavy tree cover, leaf litter and long periods of shade. Paint dries slowly there, dew lingers into late morning, and north-facing walls and timber pick up algae and mould. Before any coating goes on, affected surfaces get a fungicidal wash and time to dry out properly.
That also means exterior work in Hartwell suits the warmer, drier months more than most places. Our guide on when to paint outside in the UK explains the temperature and humidity limits we work to.
Getting a job done 6.5 miles out of town
Hartwell has had no railway station since Roade closed in 1964, and the route from Northampton is by road, either through Salcey Forest on the Hanslope road or via Roade. Dean brings the van, access equipment and materials on site and books the work as one continuous block, so the job is not stretched over scattered short visits.
The older cottages sit directly on Park Road and Forest Road, so ladders and any scaffold need careful footing and an eye on passing traffic. The estate roads at Salcey Avenue, Salcey Close and Lower End are usually easier, with more space in front of the houses to set up. For the full list of surfaces we paint outside and how each is prepared, see our main exterior painting service.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
