Gunby Hall was built for Sir William Massingberd (1649–1719), 2nd Bt, and dates from 1700. It was rescued from the inappropriate development of a nearby airfield by Field-Marshall Sir Archibald Montogomery-Massingberd (1871–1947), former Chief of Imperial General Staff, and his wife Diana Langton (1872–1963), Lady Montgomery-Massingberd, who enlisted the help of the National Trust in 1944. Charles Langton Massingberd (1815–1887) had expanded the house in the 1870s, and it was his grandson, Major Stephen Massingberd (1869–1925) who introduced some of the more interesting works of art through his marriage to Margaret Lushington (d.1906). Margaret was a patron of Arthur Hughes (1832–1915), whose portrait of her is at Gunby, and a couple of whose exquisite landscapes were subsequently purchased from John Montgomery-Massingberd in 1990.