Dean carries out commercial painting and decorating in Moulton, the NN3 village about 4.3 miles north-east of Northampton. Most of Moulton's businesses and community buildings sit in historic stone premises around Stocks Hill and the old core, which shapes the paints we use and how we schedule the work.
A village centre in old buildings
Moulton’s commercial life is concentrated on Stocks Hill and the streets running off it. There is the Co-op, Rochmills Chemist and Village Autos garage on Stocks Hill, more shops on High Street, and on West Street a gallery and coffee house in converted agricultural buildings. Add the pubs, the working men’s club, churches and chapels, schools, Moulton Community Centre, Moulton Theatre and Moulton College, and the village has a wide spread of premises for its size.
What sets it apart from an industrial estate is age. Village Autos and the Cardigan Arms are locally listed. The Telegraph and The Artichoke are Grade II listed, The Artichoke with a datestone of 1680 and stone mullioned windows. Moulton Theatre occupies the Grade II Methodist Chapel of 1835 on Cross Street, with its Y-tracery windows. Decorating these is commercial work, but it has to be done with the care a historic building needs.
Pubs, halls and chapels: matching paint to the building
Inside a 17th century pub or a 19th century chapel, the walls are often solid stone with lime plaster, and modern acrylic finishes can trap moisture and fail. We use breathable emulsions on those walls and harder-wearing finishes on joinery, bar fronts and doors that take daily knocks. In community spaces such as halls and the theatre, the priorities are durable, washable walls and safe access to high ceilings.
- Listed interiors: a change of colour or finish in a listed building may need listed building consent. Like-for-like maintenance is normally straightforward, and we agree the specification with the owner before starting.
- Mullions and leaded glazing: stone mullions and leaded lights are masked and protected, and only the timber is painted.
- Taller halls: where a chapel or hall ceiling is out of ladder reach, we bring a tower rather than stretch a ladder.
Fitting around trading on Stocks Hill
Stocks Hill premises do different jobs at different hours. The Co-op and Rochmills Chemist serve the village through the day, the pubs pick up later, and Moulton Community Centre packs a library, cafe, pre-school and halls under one roof, each with its own timetable. On a building like the community centre, the order of rooms follows who is using which space that week. For a pub such as The Artichoke or The Telegraph, the bar can be done in sections before opening. Dean agrees the sequence with whoever runs the building before quoting.
With on-street spaces on Stocks Hill in short supply, our van is unloaded early and moved off the hill so customers keep the kerbside spaces. The general approach to commercial jobs, including finish choice and phasing, is on our main commercial painting page.
Frontages in the conservation area
The 2017 conservation area appraisal notes that Stocks Hill has larger modern advertising windows and rendered buildings, and it asks that shopfronts and advertising stay sensitive to the historic setting. For a business repainting its frontage, that points toward muted, traditional colours on timber and care over render, which should be breathable where it sits on old stone. Signage and frontage repainting has its own page: shopfront painting.
On the village fringe near Moulton Park, premises such as the Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue HQ on Moulton Way sit outside the historic core, where those heritage considerations fall away. For our wider coverage of the village, see the Moulton area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
