Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield was summoned to Parliament in 1640 and took the side of King Charles I in the threatening conflict. When the English Civil War broke out he and his sons took up arms. From around January 1643, Shelford Manor was garrisoned under the command of his son Philip Stanhope. The manor was fortified during the war, and "traces of civil war fieldworks" still survive. The manor was described as "a fortified house surrounded by a very strong 'bulwark' and a great ditch on the outside of it partly filled with water", with mentions of a drawbridge and defensive "'half moons' within the bulwark".