Dean repaints shopfronts in Weedon Bec, NN7, about 8 miles west of Northampton town centre, covering the Church Street and Bridge Street centre, the High Street in Road Weedon and the village's pubs. Work is planned around opening hours wherever possible.
Two shopping streets with different backgrounds
Weedon has two commercial centres. Around Church Street and Bridge Street are the everyday shops: the supermarket, post office, newsagent, hairdressers and dentist. The High Street in Road Weedon, on the old turnpike, has a convenience store, specialist traders and a vet, and its shops grew partly after the railway station moved to just north of the A45 bridge in 1888. The buildings around these frontages are the village’s mix of sandstone, ironstone, old red brick, timber framing and white or off-white render, much of it in a conservation-area setting. A shopfront colour has to work against that background as well as the brand.
Colours and finishes for a conservation-area frontage
On traditional timber shopfronts, fascia boards, pilasters and stallrisers usually look right in deeper heritage colours with a satin or eggshell sheen, which also hide road dirt better than bright white. Stone and brick around the frontage stays unpainted. If the premises are listed, or if a new colour or new signage is part of the plan, check with West Northamptonshire Council first, as planning or advertisement consent can apply separately from the painting itself. Where an older frontage has mouldings or carved brackets, we rub down and fill by hand so the detail stays crisp instead of clogging under more coats.
Antiques dealers, pubs and the hotel
Weedon is described as a growing centre for the antiques trade, and where a dealer trades from an older building, the frontage is part of the appeal. Painted joinery on those needs patient hand preparation: old layers scraped, sound paint kept, and a traditional joinery paint used on timber sashes and doors. In 2016 the village also had four pubs and a hotel, including the listed Maltsters Arms on West Street, with its coursed limestone, ironstone bands and rendered window heads, and the Heart of England Hotel, a former farmhouse and hostelry on the turnpike. Pub frontages often combine painted render, timber windows and signboards, so we treat each surface with its own system.
Working round trading hours
Closing a village post office or the only newsagent for a repaint is rarely an option. We agree working times before starting, put the messiest preparation into the quieter parts of the week, and keep the entrance usable with wet-paint signs wherever hands might touch. Fascias and stallrisers can often be done in sections. Hairdressers and the dentist in the village centre run on appointments rather than passing trade, so a quiet morning can usually be found in advance and the doorway done then. Food shops see steady footfall all day, so we paint their doorways in halves and keep one side open. Weather still sets the limits for exterior paint, so a dry, mild forecast decides the start date.
Parking, lorries and narrow pavements
Access around the village centre needs thought. Pavements in the old streets are narrow, parking is under pressure on New Street, and HGV traffic to the depot passes through residential streets. We keep ladders and towers tight to the frontage, sheet the footway rather than closing it where possible, and work from a small van that clears the viaduct pinch points on the eastern approach. Units at Weedon Depot and on the trading estate off Daventry Road are more of a commercial painting job than a shopfront one. See the main shopfront painting page for our standard process, and the Weedon Bec page for the village itself.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
