Dairy Including South Lodge And The Coach House, Mavisbank House

Dairy Including South Lodge And The Coach House, Mavisbank House

This dairy complex dates to around 1840 and comprises a substantial composition of single-storey ranges with attic spaces and two-storey gabled sections, incorporating a coach house, cow shed, stable ranges, and milking facilities arranged around a square yard that opens to the south-west. The complex includes a semi-circular walled yard to the north. The buildings are constructed from stugged and snecked grey sandstone with droved tails to openings, featuring a base course, raised window cills, overhanging eaves, and spike finials.

The east range forms a ten-bay elevation grouped in sections of three, four, and three bays, with three-bay gabled terminal groups at each end. A single-storey section with a slightly lower roof occupies the centre, containing a replacement part-glazed door, windows, and a flat-headed garage opening with a modern door. The outer left three-bay group has a replacement boarded door, a non-aligned window to the gabled first floor, and a segmental arched opening with two-leaf boarded garage doors. The outer right three-bay group features a square-plan porch at ground level in the gabled centre bay, a modern door, windows to the north and west sides, and a first-floor window above. The west elevation of this range is irregular across five bays, containing a window at ground level with a louvered dormer above, a segmental arch for a garage with a dormer window, and a modern lean-to greenhouse, among other openings.

The south range presents a four-bay elevation grouped as three bays and one, with a two-storey gabled bay to the outer right. It contains a modern small-pane door, windows at ground and first-floor levels, and a gablehead stack. The north elevation is irregular across six bays with a modern door set within a segmental arch at ground level, boarded doors with flanking windows, a part-glazed sliding door, and various dormer windows.

The north range dominates with a near-symmetrical eight-bay elevation grouped as two, four, and two bays. The outer two-bay groups are gabled and linked by a recessed and canopied central four-bay range. This canopied section features two closely abutted segmental arches with two-leaf boarded doors at ground level in the central bays, each with a dormer window breaking through the canopy. Boarded doors with fanlights are set at ground level to either side, with the canopy supported by iron columns. The two-bay blocks at each end contain windows at ground and first-floor levels with gablehead stacks above. The south elevation of this range is irregular across five bays, with a modern small-pane door, windows at various levels, and a round-arched window set high in the outer left bay.

The west range comprises a regular four-bay elevation with segmental arches containing modern small-pane doors with fanlights and flanking windows at ground level in alternate bays, with later dormer windows above. Modern canted windows appear at ground level in other bays, also with later dormers. The east elevation of this range is largely obscured by vegetation. The western wall of the milking parlour remains, retaining some of the original tethering rings.

Throughout the complex, a variety of glazing patterns is evident, including nine- and twelve-pane timber sash and case windows and six-pane casement windows. The buildings feature grey slate roofing with slate to the dormers, blocked and stepped ashlar skews, and ashlar coped stacks positioned at the gabled angles and to each of the main ranges. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

Square-plan gatepiers of droved ashlar sandstone with cornices and square caps stand at the north-east angle, flanked by arrow-headed wrought-iron gates (the east gatepier was damaged as of 1996). The semi-circular walled yard to the north is enclosed by a squared sandstone rubble wall with a curved rubble cope, terminated at each end by cylindrical droved ashlar piers with conical caps, and features a cobbled surface.