Country house built c.1770, with late 18th and 19th century alterations and additions. Possibly by John Carr in the Gothick style. Constructed in limestone ashlar and coursed limestone rubble. It has a flat roof and three parallel slate roofs. Three visible brick stacks; a single stonestack below roof line. The building is rectangular in plan, with a 18th century range with large corner turrets. The north range has been truncated, sometime in the 19th century. It stands two storeys high and has a five bay front with plinth, a projecting central bay and central doorway with bolecton moulded stone doorcase. There are battlements on turrets and on the main body of the house. Hall interior with fine Gothick traceried vaulted plaster ceiling in the style of Adam, with large pointed arches divided into two lights, tripartite foliate motif, rosettes and bold corbelling on east and west walls. There is also a fine late 18th century staircase with a single flight, reversed at later date. Extensive cellars run under both ranges and beyond underneath. For the full description and the legal address of this listed building please refer to the appropriate List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. {1} Sir Cecil Wray is said to have built his Gothic Castle in 1760. But judging by style and plan it is a decade later, and John Carr may have been employed to design it. The house is felicitously placed astride the ridge. To the east is an avenue to Gothic lodges and an arch, to the west an escarpment dropping down to the Gothicized tower of the church (see PRN 51111), worked deliberately into the composition. The castle is raised upon a podium. Rectangular with circular towers at the angles and crenelated parapets. Arched western windows of moulded stone recessed into the wall. Between the towers, the long front has four bays, the short front three, an ogee-headed doorway (derived from Plate 21 Langleys Gothic Architecture Improved), and an oddly jumped-up dripmould. The offices make a long courtyard from the northern front (cf. Carr's Grimston Garth in the East Riding of Yorkshire). The interior is completely classical (i.e. 1770s), with good chimneypieces: the entrance hall, however, is vaulted, and there is in upstairs rooms some Gothic work in plaster and papier-mache. {2} 'Norton Place shows the Yorkshire architect, John Carr, in fine classical vein. Fillingham, close by, reveals him in much more playful mood, if indeed he is the architect of this captivating castellated house. It was built in 1750 for Sir Cecil Wray, and stands on the edge of the Cliff, looking out to the west over the lake known as Fillingham Broad. The Gothicised church tower of the village is also part of the view. The mixture of sash windows and Gothic glazing bars, round towers and classical rooms is a delight. So too is the plaster and papier-mache vaulting in the hall. The Gothick theme continues to the east where, at the end of a long avenue, Ermine Lodge, with an arch and crenelated towers stands as an eye-catcher beside the A15.' {3}