Fillingham Castle

Fillingham Castle is a country house, dating from around 1770 with later 18th-century additions. It may have been designed by John Carr. The building is constructed in Gothick style using limestone ashlar and coursed limestone rubble, with flat roofs and three parallel slate roofs. There are three visible brick stacks and a single stone stack below the roof line.

The main house is a rectangular range with large corner turrets, accompanied by a truncated range to the north. The front of the main building has three stories and five bays. It features a projecting central bay with a central doorway framed by a bolection moulded stone doorcase, an ogee head, a traceried fanlight, and deep-set, partially glazed doors. The doorway is flanked by single glazing bar sashes, with three glazing bar sashes in each turret. Above the doorway is a flat band rising to a segmental arch at the apex. An ashlar band runs above the doorway, over the flanking turrets. A large glazing bar sash sits above the doorway, flanked by smaller glazing bar sashes and three blind oculi in each turret. A flat band above rises to a gable above the central bay. Battlements adorn the turrets and the main body of the house.

The east front has a rubble basement with traces of four blocked basement openings. An ashlar band runs above the basement, over the turrets, followed by four glazing bar sashes. The first floor has an ashlar band above, with four glazing bar sashes and three more glazing bar sashes in the north-east turret. Further above is a flat band and battlements. All windows in the 18th-century range have elliptical heads with traceried upper sashes.

A later 18th-century range to the north has a five-bay east front with a plinth, four glazing bar sashes, and a large, round-headed glazing bar sash to the right, featuring a traceried upper sash. The first floor has an ashlar band above, with four glazing bar sashes. The band rises in the right-hand bay to run under a small, fixed glazing bar window set in a blind segmental opening. A flat band above rises to a gable over the right-hand bay, with taller battlements above.

The hall interior has a fine Gothick traceried vaulted plaster ceiling in the style of Adam, with large pointed arches divided into two lights, a tripartite foliate motif, rosettes, and bold corbelling on the east and west walls. A fine late 18th-century staircase, single flight, was reversed at a later date and features bracketed tread ends, two very slender carved balusters with square knops to each tread, and a moulded handrail. The hall ceiling has a delicate ornate cornice with modillions and rosettes. Fine cornices of various designs are found in the ground floor drawing room, dining room, three lower turret rooms, and two upper turret rooms. The turret rooms feature domed ceilings and ornate central paterae. Extensive cellars run under both ranges and beyond the section of the 19th-century range demolished in the 20th century. These cellars contain doorways with elliptical and segmental heads, niches, and blocked windows in the turrets and the main 18th-century house, revealing the raising of the ground level when a terrace was built around the house.