DH Painter & Decorator covers Overstone from our Northampton base, about 5 miles north-east of the town centre off the A43. Dean, who has over 30 years in the trade, decorates the village's Grade II lias cottages with breathable finishes and the later houses off Woodland Avenue and by the lakes with modern systems.
Overstone at a glance
Overstone is a long, linear village and civil parish just off the A43 Kettering road, about 5 miles north-east of Northampton town centre. It had 741 residents at the 2011 census, carries NN6 postcodes and now sits in West Northamptonshire, in the Moulton ward, having previously been part of Daventry District. The parish takes in the former Overstone Park estate, with its partly ruined Victorian hall, a golf club, a private school and a lakes caravan site. The newer Overstone Leys estate on the western edge of the parish is a very different place to decorate, and it has its own page. This page is about the village itself.
How the village came to look the way it does
The medieval village sat further into the park, beyond the present church. Lord of the Manor Henry Stratford probably moved it to its current position around the middle of the 18th century, and Eyre’s map of 1775 records the move. That explains why the oldest houses date from the early to mid-18th century and line Sywell Road. Among them are the thatched row at Nos. 102, 104, 106, 108 and 110 Sywell Road, Holly Lodge Farmhouse on the north side of the road, and Overstone Gate, all built in regular coursed lias.
A century later the estate added its own buildings. Whistlefield, Court House, The Dairy, Court Lodge and Court Cottages were built in the mid-19th century as a group of estate service houses, with ashlar dressings, gable parapets, stone mullion windows and moulded stone door heads. Overstone Hall, designed by William Milford Teulon in the early 1860s for Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone, was badly damaged by fire in April 2001 and is now partly ruined. The Church of St Nicholas, built about 1807 and remodelled in 1903, stands in a field in the park a short walk from the village. Later houses fill Woodland Avenue, off Sywell Road near the village hall, and a cluster of streets beside the lakes in the south-east of the park, including Pine Avenue, Park Lands, Sycamore Drive and Kingfisher Court.
Lias stone, listing and what can be painted
Overstone has no conservation area. Its character rests instead on 18 Grade II listed buildings and structures, and alterations that affect their character need listed building consent from West Northamptonshire Council. For decorating, that matters in three ways:
- Bare stone stays bare. Most of the old walling is unpainted coursed lias, and that is how it should stay. Acrylic masonry paint traps moisture in soft limestone, so stone that has been painted before should only get limewash or mineral silicate paint. Ashlar dressings, mullions and door heads are masked and protected, never painted.
- Colour changes can need consent. Changing a joinery colour, stripping old finishes or painting bare stone or timber on a listed building can all require consent, so we check before quoting.
- Old joinery takes traditional paint. The 19th-century panelled doors and casements on the estate group, and period joinery like Holly Lodge’s six-panel door and wooden porch, suit oil or linseed-based paints. Paint of that age may contain lead, so it is tested and prepared without dust.
Our render and masonry painting page explains the masonry side in more detail, and the doors and woodwork page covers joinery.
Thatch, leaded casements and rear doors
The Sywell Road row is thatched, with eyebrow dormers and leaded casements under wooden lintels. The thatch overhangs the first-floor windows, which limits where ladders can stand, and nothing that could start a fire goes anywhere near it: no heat guns, no open flame, and solvents kept well clear. Stripping on these cottages is done chemically or by hand. The small, old timber of the casements is hand-brushed.
The row has another quirk. Apart from a 20th-century porch on No. 104, the cottages have no front doors and are entered from the rear. The back door is the main door, so the rear joinery and porch take the most wear and need repainting more often than the front. When we work on these houses, we keep that entrance usable throughout.
Inside the older houses
Interiors in the old cottages and farmhouses have chamfered beams, open fireplaces and, often, lime plaster, all of which call for breathable paints rather than vinyl-rich emulsion. Two-unit plans mean compact rooms and narrow, steep stairs, which limits access and drying space. Uneven walls usually need lining paper before wallpaper. Some of the listed houses have 20th-century rear extensions, where the join between old lime plaster and new gypsum needs care and new plaster needs a mist coat. In these rooms, limewash and distemper-style finishes can suit the walls better than modern paint. See our main interior painting page for how we approach a whole house.
Parkland, lakes and damp shade
Overstone is surrounded by open parkland, the lakes at Pike Pond and Upper Pond, a golf course, farmland and woodland belts such as Cowpasture Spinney, Gashouse Spinney and Hayes Belt. Many properties sit among mature trees. For outside work that means leaf fall, tree sap, algae and damp shade on north-facing walls, gates and fences. We wash those surfaces with a fungicidal cleaner before painting and allow a longer drying window before any coat goes on. Gutters, fascias and soffits under trees collect debris, so they are cleaned out before they are repainted. The guide to timing exterior painting explains why timing matters even more in a shaded village like this.
The newer homes
The later houses off Woodland Avenue and in the lakeside streets are not listed and not in a conservation area, so normal masonry paint, modern joinery systems and contemporary colours can all be used. Interiors take standard emulsions and straightforward wallpaper hangs. The parkland setting suits muted greens and stone tones outside, though the choice is entirely yours.
Schools, clubs and lakeside premises
There is no high street. Commercial and community buildings include the post office, Park Stores and the cafes, restaurant and Overstone Manor pub around the lakes, as well as the golf club, the cricket club, the village hall, Overstone Primary School and Overstone Park School, a private day school on a 12-acre site within the park. Work on these is planned around opening hours or term times, and halls and schools get hard-wearing, scrubbable finishes.
Getting a quote
Sywell Road is the village’s through-route, so parking and the position of ladders or scaffold at the front of a house need some planning, and Dean will agree this with you when he visits. He will also tell you whether your house is likely to need listed building consent for the work you have in mind. Call 07539 779 036 to arrange a free quote.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
