Farm Court, Buxley, Manderston House

Farm Court, part of the larger Manderston House farm complex, was designed by John Kinross around 1900. It is a quadrangular court enclosed to the south by a dairy court and adjoined to the northeast by a fire station and power house, which are listed separately. The building is constructed of squared and snecked rubble with droved ashlar dressings. It comprises single and two-storey ranges.

The north range is two-storeys high and abuts the fire station to the northeast. A full-height, round-arched pend entrance is located to the east of the centre, featuring a roll-moulded surround to the north. Two doors are set under the pend at ground level; the southern door provides access to an internal stair, and there is a hayloft opening above. The north elevation has spur stones to the pend. To the right of the pend are three bays containing a segmental carriage arch with a pair of boarded doors, flanked by windows, and a smaller window above. There is a gabled return to the west with a boarded door at ground level and a window above. The south-facing elevation, towards the court, is abutted to the west by a single-storey range and to the east by a two-storey granary; access to the first floor of the granary is gained via a stone forestair running up the south elevation of the otherwise blank north range. Former openings have been blocked.

The west range is a single-storey cattle box range, with the roof pitch rising to meet the ridge height of the adjacent two-storey range. The outer elevation has a gabled return of the north range to the left, containing a variety of openings, doors, and windows, including two sets of double-leafed doors – one boarded and one modern. The elevation facing the court is similarly detailed.

The east range is two-storeys high to the north and features three square hayloft windows at first floor level on both sides, above cattle boxes at ground level. A segmental-arched opening with sliding doors faces the court, flanked by windows. A door is located to the outer right at ground level, and a pedimented loft door is situated to the left in a re-entrant angle with the north range; this is accessed via the forestair. The outer elevation has a tall door to the outer left and three square windows at ground level, detailed similarly to those above. A crowstepped gable with battered coping separates the two-storey part of the range from the single-storey section. The lower section has a wide door (double-leafed), a window, and a stable door facing the court; the outer elevation contains a pedestrian door (with a sliding door) and stable grilles near the wallhead.

Most windows are timber, with small panes; typically, they consist of three-pane fixed upper sashes and sliding timber ventilation shutters below. The roofs are predominantly graded grey slate, with slates raised for a ventilation course over the southeast stable. Corrugated sheet metal is used on the west range’s roof. There are some cast-iron rooflights and glazed sheets. The court surface is paved with granite setts.