Gunby Hall

So, my birthday a couple of days ago passed without any celebration, although I did get some lovely messages from friends and family. We tend not to mark birthdays, but next year might just be different when we will be in Rio for my big 60th!! 😊

We had to go home yesterday for a blood pressure test which turned out to be completely normal - what a relief! We went to the Beck for lunch and then to the Loewen to see One Love, a biopic about Bob Marley. We were the only customers in the screening! It was a really good movie! We do appreciate having a decent restaurant and a fantastic cinema within a few hundred yards of where we live!

This morning, I had my appointment with the diabetic nurse. She was ready to prescribe me tablets, but agreed to give me 8 weeks to reduce my blood sugar levels through lifestyle changes. I've got my work cut out!

Afterwards, rather than drive straight back to Whitby, we decided to visit Gunby Hall, a National Trust property only 20 minutes from home. I did a craft fair there once, but we have never visited it properly.

The hall was built by Sir William Massingberd from 1696 to 1701. It remained in his family until the death of Diana Massingberd in 1967. He built a four-square, no-nonsense brick house with few artistic flourishes. The building we see today is pretty much as he created it. Despite its rather austere appearance, the house seems to have been a happy place for most of its history. The family loved living there. Despite its remote location, the house has been the focus of consistently fascinating groups of friends and contacts throughout the years: from Dr Johnson in the eighteenth century to Rudyard Kipling in the 20th, from Charles Darwin to Josiah Wedgwood, Virginia Woolf and Edward Lear to Vaughan Williams and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the list is as long as it is various.

The interior retains much of the original furniture. There is a real sense of it being a treasured family home. The room stewards we spoke to were all passionate about the house and its contents. We really enjoyed looking around.Read more