DH Painter & Decorator covers White Hills, the residential district on the northern edge of Northampton about 2.8 miles from the town centre in NN2. Dean has over 30 years in the trade and paints the inter-war estate houses, large detached homes, retirement flats and local shops, with free written quotes.
A 1930s estate on Northampton’s northern edge
White Hills, often written Whitehills, is the residential district at the northern limit of Northampton, beyond old Kingsthorpe and between the A508 Harborough Road North and the A5199 Welford Road. It is counted in the Spring Park ward of Kingsthorpe parish, and the land was absorbed into Northampton borough in 1931. The estate itself began in the 1930s, built along Harborough Road opposite Kingsthorpe Cemetery, which had opened in 1898 and holds Commonwealth war graves from both World Wars.
Around it, later decades filled in the gaps. The Spring Park estate to the south-west went up in the late 1960s and 1970s, Obelisk Rise to the east is a large 1960s estate, and to the north the Buckton Fields development, approved in 2013, is still being built in phases. Beyond that is open countryside. So a single walk through White Hills takes you past inter-war estate houses, individually built detached houses, retirement flats and brand-new homes, and each needs a slightly different approach from a decorator.
Inter-war houses: what to expect inside and out
The original estate houses, on streets such as White Hills Crescent and White Hills Way, are typical of their period. Inside, many still have panelled doors, deep skirtings and picture rails under layers of old gloss, and walls of patched plaster with the hairline cracks that come with age. Good results come from preparation: testing old coatings, keying and filling joinery, and raking out cracks rather than painting over them. Our interior painting service covers that work room by room, and the picture rails and chimney-breast alcoves of these houses also suit wallpaper well.
Outside, houses of this age commonly mix facing brick with rendered or roughcast upper storeys, though it varies house to house. Painted render needs checking for hairline cracks and failing old coatings before a breathable masonry paint goes on; our render and masonry painting page explains the process. Many houses have replaced their windows with uPVC, but surviving timber fascias, soffits and frames need rot checks before painting. Houses on the open northern edge catch more wind than those on sheltered inner streets, so exterior timber there weathers faster and benefits from a shorter repaint cycle.
Detached homes on Harborough Road North
Along Harborough Road North are larger houses built individually on generous plots. One example runs to about 2,226 sq ft on roughly 0.4 acre with mature gardens wrapping round it. Inside, several reception rooms, a long hall and a broad landing make a full redecoration a multi-day job that needs phasing, so the household keeps a working kitchen and somewhere to sit. These formal rooms are also where decorative finishes, painted panelling and heavier wallpapers make most sense.
Outside, three things shape the work. First, the A508 is a trunk road, and frontages facing it pick up road dirt and spray, so paint dulls faster and needs a proper wash-down before recoating. Ladders and vehicles at the front need care around passing traffic. Second, the big plots mean long fence runs and timber driveway gates; our fence and gate staining service deals with those, and mature shrubs are tied back and protected before work starts. Third, some homes share a private drive, such as Anchor Drive, so we agree van parking with you and let neighbours know before day one. For timing outside work, see our exterior painting page.
Wardington Court and other flats
Wardington Court on Welford Road is a block of leasehold one- and two-bedroom retirement flats. Inside an individual flat, jobs are often a full refresh in neutral colours before a sale, done with low-odour paints and a tidy finish each day because residents may be at home throughout. The corridors, stairwells and doors in the communal areas are managed by the managing agent, and any work there is planned with them, keeping routes open and choosing quiet, low-odour products for older residents.
New homes next door at Buckton Fields
The new-build streets at Buckton Fields, just north of the Kingsthorpe parish border, bring a completely different kind of job. Martin Grant Homes, Bloor Homes and Taylor Wimpey have each built phases there, and their houses come with fresh plaster under a thin builder’s finish. The sensible order is to let the plaster dry and any shrinkage show, then fill and base-coat before choosing your own colours. Our guide to painting new plaster explains why the mist coat matters.
Shops, the pub and community buildings
White Hills has two small groups of shops rather than a high street. The first clusters around The Whitehills pub: a convenience supermarket, the post office, a home supplies shop, food outlets and a hair salon. The second, further west by Whitehills Primary School, is anchored by a Tesco Express with food outlets and a beauty salon beside it. Signage boards, frames and stallrisers on premises like these are painted around trading hours, and pub and restaurant interiors need hard-wearing trade finishes. St Mark’s Church hall, and the care homes mapped south of the district, are interiors where work has to be timed around the people using them. See our commercial painting page for how we schedule that work.
No conservation area to work around
The conservation areas in this part of Northampton cover the old Kingsthorpe village core further south, not White Hills, and the sources we checked list no Article 4 direction and no listed buildings in the district. Homeowners here can choose exterior colours freely. That makes good colour choice a matter of taste and practicality rather than permission, and Dean is happy to help with that as part of any job.
Getting a quote
We cover White Hills from our Northampton base, about 2.8 miles from the town centre. Dean visits, looks at the job, talks through what you want and how the house is used, and gives a written quote with no obligation. If you are comparing several decorators, our guide to choosing a painter and decorator lists the questions worth asking each of them. For what affects the cost, read our painter and decorator cost guide, or call 07539 779 036.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
