DH Painter & Decorator takes on commercial painting for businesses and organisations in Wootton, around 2.4 miles south of Northampton town centre. Premises range from small units in listed buildings on the historic High Street to large roadside sites and schools, and each needs a different plan.
From a 1715 pub to a supermarket
Wootton’s commercial premises are unusually varied for a village. On the historic High Street, the Yeoman of England pub occupies a Grade II listed building dated 1715. Nearby are the Working Men’s Club, a medical centre, a corner shop at 40 High Street and other village shops and services. At the crossroads with Water Lane and Sunnyside, the former grain store still has a largely intact original shopfront. On the edge of the parish are larger roadside sites: the Queen Eleanor pub and a Premier Inn on Newport Pagnell Road, a Waitrose store, opened in 2013, and a garden centre. There are also several large schools.
Our main commercial painting page describes how we plan around a working business. Below is what changes for Wootton.
Premises inside the conservation area
Much of the High Street lies within the Wootton conservation area, and several buildings on it are listed. Colours and finishes on these frontages should suit the warm ironstone, pale limestone and slate of the village. If a building is listed, a change of colour or finish, inside or out, can need consent from West Northamptonshire Council, so check before work starts. Rubble stone that has never been painted should generally stay that way. The 2010 appraisal treats painted or rendered stone as rare and out of keeping in the village.
The appraisal also picked out the bare galvanised railings and gate at the medical centre at 36 High Street as something that should be painted. Galvanised steel needs a mordant wash or etch primer before topcoats, or the paint peels within a season. Details are on our metal gate and railing painting page.
Working on the High Street needs planning. Traffic uses it as a through road, cars cannot wait on the yellow lines, cables run overhead and the frontages meet the pavement with no forecourt. Ladders and towers need to be placed with the public walking past, so we fence off the work area and agree loading times in advance.
Schools: work done in the holidays
The parish includes Wootton Primary School, whose building dates from 1872/73, Caroline Chisholm School on Wooldale Road, Northampton High School on Newport Pagnell Road and Preston Hedges Primary School on Hope Drive. Classrooms, corridors and halls in schools generally need painting when pupils are away, so we schedule school work for half terms and the summer holiday. We use low-odour, quick-drying water-based paints so rooms can be back in use quickly.
Roadside, retail and hospitality sites
| Type of premises | What usually limits the work | How we plan it |
|---|---|---|
| Village shops, club and surgery on High Street | Opening hours, narrow footway, conservation setting | Early starts, sections done between customers, heritage-appropriate colours |
| Pubs and hotel on Newport Pagnell Road | Guests and diners on site most of the day | Rooms and bar areas done in rotation, low-odour paint |
| Supermarket and garden centre | Long trading hours, customer safety | Phased areas with barriers, or work outside opening times by agreement |
Exterior work at these sites has its own local conditions. The Queen Eleanor and the Premier Inn stand at the Mereway junction with the A45, the dual carriageway that carries traffic to the M1, so walls, windows and signboards there collect road grime that has to be washed off before any paint will bond. Up in the village, the sycamores outside the Yeoman of England and the beech by the Memorial Hall shade nearby frontages and drip on them, which encourages algae and green staining on timber and render. We treat those surfaces with a biocide wash and let them dry before priming. Trees in the conservation area are protected, so we work around branches rather than cutting them back.
For more about the parish itself, see our Wootton area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
