Gunby Hall is a country house in Gunby, near

Spilsby Spilsby is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The town is adjacent to the main A16, east of the county town of Lincoln, north-east of Boston and north-west of Skegness. It ...

, in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, England, reached by a half mile long private drive. The Estate comprises the 42-room Gunby Hall, listed Grade I, a clocktower, listed Grade II* and a carriage house and stable block which are listed Grade II. In 1944 the trustees of the Gunby Hall Estate, Lady Montgomery-Massingberd, Major Norman Leith-Hay-Clarke and Field Marshal Sir

Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd Field Marshal Sir Archibald Armar Montgomery-Massingberd, (6 December 1871 – 13 October 1947), known as Archibald Armar Montgomery until October 1926, was a senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) ...

, gave the house to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

together with its contents and some 1,500 acres of land."Haunt Of Ancient Peace Gunby Hall Given To National Trust" in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', Wednesday, 31 May 1944; pg. 2; Issue 49870; col D

Description

"Gunby is on the edge of the

Lincolnshire Wolds The Lincolnshire Wolds are a range of low hills in the county of Lincolnshire, England which run roughly parallel with the North Sea coast, from the Humber Estuary in the north-west to the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens in the south-east. They a ...

, near Spilsby, some eight miles from Skegness and not far from Tennyson's home at Somersby. It was of Gunby that Tennyson wrote the lines ''a haunt of ancient peace''." The house is built from red brick, and was constructed in 1700 for Sir William Massingberd. Many of the interiors of the house are wood panelled, and it has 8 acres of Victorian

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...

s, which contain traditional English flowers, fruits and vegetables. The Hall is a Grade 1

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It was substantially extended in 1873 and again in 1898 with the addition of the North Wing and

Clock Tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

. The Hall contains significant collections of art, furniture, porcelain and silver including original pieces by Sir

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Go ...

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. ...

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 (New Style, N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the Englis ...

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

Thomas Sheraton Thomas Sheraton (1751 – 22 October 1806) was a furniture designer, one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century, along with Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite. Sheraton gave his name to a style of furniture characte ...

and

Lucio Rannuci Lucio is an Italian and Spanish male given name derived from the Latin name ''Lucius''. In Portuguese, the given name is accented Lúcio. Lucio is also an Italian surname. Given name * Lúcio (Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) (born 1978), Brazilian f ...

Park and gardens

Surrounding the hall is a 100-acre park, listed as being of historical significance and laid out in the style of

Lancelot "Capability" Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

. Around that is a farmed estate of 1,500 acres. the estate used to extend to many thousands of acres and reached the coast at what is now

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

. Land was sold in the 19th century to the

Earl of Scarbrough Earl of Scarbrough is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1690 for Richard Lumley, 2nd Viscount Lumley. He is best remembered as one of the Immortal Seven who invited William of Orange to invade England and depose his father-i ...

who built the town of Skegness to satisfy increasing demand from tourism created by the expansion of the railways. The gardens are laid out in an informal English style with large Victorian walled and kitchen gardens, lawns, an arboretum and carp pond believed to be older than the main hall. There are 50 types of apple tree, 21 of pear and over 50 types of rose in the gardens. There is also a 17th-century dove cote, a grass tennis court, croquet pitch, cottage, apple store and studio. On the edge of the formal gardens and within the Park lies St Peter's Church. Rebuilt on medieval foundations in the 1870s, the Church is accessible only through the Hall's gardens but it remains the active Parish Church of Gunby with a service once a month.

History

Emily Massingberd by Theodore Blake Wirgman (1848-1925)

The house was originally built in 1700 for Sir William Massingberd, 2nd Baronet, on the site of a small manor house that had once belonged to a family called Gunby. The stable block was built in 1735 by Massingberd's nephew and heir William Meux-Massingberd. A two-storey, five-bay extension wing was added in two stages in the late nineteenth century. William owned the house until 1781, after which it passed to his grandson Henry, who lived away and died in France in 1784. From him it passed to his daughter Elizabeth Mary Anne Massingberd who had married Peregrine Langton (afterwards Peregrine Langton Massingberd). The hall descended in the Langton/Massingberd family to Lady Montgomery-Massingberd (1873–1963), born Diana Langton, who had married Archibald Montgomery, who thereupon changed his name to Montgomery-Massingberd. She and her husband donated the Hall to the National Trust in 1944. Gunby Hall and Gardens are opened to the public by the National Trust.

Murder and haunting

Gunby Hall is allegedly

haunted Haunted or The Haunted may refer to: Books * ''Haunted'' (Armstrong novel), by Kelley Armstrong, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Cabot novel), by Meg Cabot, 2004 * ''Haunted'' (Palahniuk novel), by Chuck Palahniuk, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Angel novel), a 200 ...

, and the sightings have been linked with rumours of a brutal murder that occurred during Sir William Massingberd's residency. Sir William discovered that his daughter (some accounts say his wife) was about to run away with one of the servants, a

postillion A postilion or postillion is a person who guides a horse-drawn coach or post chaise while mounted on the horse or one of a pair of horses. By contrast, a coachman controls the horses from the vehicle itself. Originally the English name for a g ...

. On the night the lovers intended to flee, Sir William hid in waiting and shot the postillion dead. The servant's body was dragged through the grounds and thrown into the pond. Some accounts say that Sir William was so enraged he shot his daughter dead as well. Word of the secret murder must have got out because soon locals were whispering that Gunby Hall was cursed and that no male of Massingberd's descent would ever inherit the house. The ghostly form of the murdered servant has been seen haunting the path by the pond, now called 'Ghost Walk', eternally waiting for his lover.Codd, Daniel. ''Haunted Lincolnshire''. Tempus Publishing Ltd (2006) p. 28.

References

External links

* * {{coord, 53.17877, N, 0.19374, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Lincolnshire Grade I listed buildings in Lincolnshire Parks and open spaces in Lincolnshire Gardens in Lincolnshire Houses completed in 1700 Grade I listed houses 1700 establishments in England