Dean paints commercial and community premises in Rothersthorpe, about 3.4 miles south-west of Northampton town centre. The village has no shops, so the work here is community buildings such as the Memorial Hall, chapel and primary school, plus converted farm buildings now in other uses.
Commercial work in a village with no shops
None of the sources we checked records a shop or parade in Rothersthorpe, and The Chequers pub closed in 2011. The non-domestic buildings are the Church of St Peter and St Paul, a chapel, the Church of England primary school, the Memorial Hall, and farm buildings that have been converted to other uses. Each is run in its own way, and the paint plan has to fit around that.
| Building type | What usually shapes the job |
|---|---|
| Memorial Hall | The booking diary; hard-wearing finishes for chairs, tables and heavy footfall |
| Primary school | School holidays; low-odour, quick-drying paints; safeguarding arrangements on site |
| Chapel | Its pattern of use; older solid walls that may need breathable paint |
| Converted farm buildings | Solid stone or brick walls that need breathable paint; the occupiers’ working hours |
Halls, the school and term time
The Memorial Hall and the chapel date from the 19th century, when the village also gained its school and The Chequers. Most of the 19th-century building in the village is red brick under slate. On brick community buildings the outside work is mostly the timber windows, doors, bargeboards and gutters, while the brickwork itself is normally left as facing brick. Inside, a hall like this takes knocks from stacked chairs and trolleys, so the lower walls do better in a scrubbable finish and the doors and frames in a hard-wearing satin. We work from the booking calendar so regular users aren’t turned away, and we leave each room clean and usable at the end of each day if it is booked the next morning.
School work fits most easily into the summer holidays, with smaller areas done over half-terms. We use low-odour, water-based paints so classrooms are ready for the start of term without a lingering smell.
The church, listed buildings and The Berry
The Church of St Peter and St Paul is listed Grade II*, with a 13th-century fabric and an unusual saddleback roof on its tower. For Church of England churches, permission for works usually comes through the diocese’s faculty system rather than from the council. The parish would normally arrange that before any decorating starts, and we can supply the paint specification it needs. Elsewhere in the conservation area, which takes in most of Church Street, parts of North Street and The Berry, painting stone or brick that is currently bare deserves a conversation with West Northamptonshire Council first. The appraisal says painted buildings are not characteristic of the village.
Converted farm premises and access
Farm buildings converted to other uses are usually ironstone or local red brick. Inside they need breathable paints on the old walls, and outside they need painted rather than stained joinery to match the village pattern. Access is the other practical point. Church Street and North Street meander, with buildings right on the road edge, and plots by The Berry and the church are tight. We plan ladder or tower positions and van parking at the quote, and we think about passing traffic where a tower has to stand near the road.
The parish also contains Roadchef’s Northampton Services at M1 Junction 15A, which was originally named after the village. We’re a small business run by Dean, so we’re most at home with buildings on the scale of the village premises above. We’ll be straight with you about what fits.
See our commercial painting page for how we plan business jobs, and the Rothersthorpe area page for the village’s housing.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
