Gilling Castle Gilling Castle is a grade I listed castle near Gilling East , North Yorkshire , England ( ) . History . The castle was originally the home of the Etton family , who appeared there at the end of the 12th century . It was Thomas de Etton who built the fortified manor house in the 14th century – a large tower almost square , whose basement still forms the core of the present building . In 1349 his father had settled the manor of Gilling on his wife ' s family , the Fairfaxes , in the event of the failure of the Ettons to produce a male heir . Thus , Thomas Fairfax was able to claim the property in 1489 , and it was his great grandson , Sir William Fairfax , who succeeded in 1571 , and undertook the rebuilding of the old 14th - century house . Building on top of the medieval walls and leaving the ground floor intact , he rebuilt the first and second floors , adding at the back ( east ) a staircase turret and an oriel window . The Great Chamber was also built at this time . At the beginning of the 18th century the owner , now Viscount Fairfax of Emley , remodelled much of the interior of the house and added the wings enclosing the front ( west ) court . Though this work has often been attributed to John Vanbrugh or James Gibbs , an attribution to the Yorkshire gentleman architect William Wakefield ( died 1730 ) , is based on a written note by Francis Drake . Minor alterations were made in the 1750s by John Carr , who was engaged in remodelling the interior of the prominent Fairfax seat in York , Fairfax Houise , Castlegate . On the death of Mrs Barnes ( Lavinia Fairfax ) in 1885 , this branch of the family became extinct and the castle , after passing through several hands , was bought by Ampleforth Abbey in 1929 . The vendor , however , retained the panelling and glass of the Great Chamber and sold it separately . The fittings were recovered for Gilling , with the help of the Pilgrim Trust and many friends and subscribers , and restored to its old home in 1952 . Today , the castle is home to St Martin ' s Ampleforth , the prep school for Ampleforth College . The castle is also designated a Grade I listed building . The Great Chamber . The Great Chamber is the principal room of the house as rebuilt by Sir William Fairfax , who held Gilling from 1571 to 1597 . It survived the 18th century rebuilding almost unaltered and is a remarkable example of the richness and elaboration of a late Elizabethan interior . Sir William was keenly interested to demonstrate in heraldry his connections in Yorkshire , and he used it to decorate the newly built room , to such an extent that in the 1590s , inventories show , there was a book to which visitors could refer in order to identify the arms in plaster , paint and glass . The glass has the signature of a Flemish artist and the date , 1585 , which suggests that the room and its decorations were completed that year . The room is wainscoted in English oak divided in height into three large panels in the four corners . The lozenges are filled with interlacing geometrical patterns in ebony and holly . Each one is different and there are nearly a hundred round the room . Each triangular panel is inlaid with a flower . The chimneypiece has the Fairfax achievement of arms in the centre panel . Above are the arms of Queen Elizabeth I . The chimney breast above the fireplace has four coats of arms - of Sir William ' s four sisters and their husbands ( Bellasis , Curwen , Vavasour , and Roos , each impaling Fairfax ) . Above the wainscoting runs a frieze , painted on boards , displaying the arms of the gentlemen of Yorkshire . They are arranged in twenty - one Wapentake s . To each Wapentake is given a tree and the coats of all gentlemen then living in that district are hung on its branches . Sir William carried on his heraldic decoration in the painted glass , which is the finest part of the Great Chamber . The south window , which alone survives almost intact , is devoted to the heraldry and genealogy of his second wife ' s family , the Stapletons . The bay window has suffered , and the first row of lights was reglazed with clear glass , probably in the 18th century . This window shows the story of the Fairfax family . These two windows are the work of Bernard Dininckoff , who has left his signature , with the date 1585 and a tiny portrait of himself , in the bottom right - hand light of the south window . The third ( east ) window has also lost its lower lights and is by a different artist , slightly later in date . It shows the story of the Constable family . For Sir William ' s only son , Thomas ( afterwards the first Viscount Fairfax ) , married Catharine Constable of Burton Constable . The ribbed plaster ceiling with its fans and pendants completed the room . Once again Sir William ' s enthusiasm for heraldry finds its place , for the grounds of the panels formed by the ribs are decorated with lions ( Fairfax coat ) , and goats and talbots ( the Fairfax and Stapleton supporters ) . Controversies . Cardinal Basil Hume was accused in ' hushing up ' a suspected sexual abuse scandal at Ampleforth College by not calling in the police when he received a complaint from parents in 1975 about Father Piers Grant - Ferris , the son of a Tory peer at Gilling Castle , which was a prep school for Ampleforth . In 2005 , Grant - Ferris admitted 20 incidents of child abuse . This was not an isolated incident and involved other monks and lay members . The " Yorkshire Post " reported in 2005 ; " Pupils at a leading Roman Catholic school suffered decades of abuse from at least six paedophiles following a decision by former Abbot Basil Hume not to call in police at the beginning of the scandal . "