Shelford Priory - Shelford Manor - Siege and Destruction

Siege and Destruction

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. Shelford Manor was garrisoned under the command of his son Philip Stanhope.

The house was surrounded on 1 November 1645 by forces led by Colonel John Hutchinson and Colonel-General Sydnam Poyntz. The summons to surrender was rejected by Philip Stanhope.

Lucy Hutchinson the wife of John Hutchinson (Colonel) described some of the tactics of the defenders:

When he came thither, a few of the Shelford soldiers were gotten into the steeple of the church, and from thence so played upon the garrison’s men that they could not quietly take up their quarters. There was a trapdoor that went into the belfry, and they had made it fast, and drew up the ladders and the bell-ropes, and regarded not the Governor’s threatening to have no quarter if they came not down, so that he was forced to send for straw and fire it and smother them out.

The house was stormed on 3 November. Stanhope was killed on 3 November and many defenders were massacred. 140 were taken prisoner. Shelford House was plundered for valuables and burnt to the ground. On the following day, Colonel-General Sydnam Poyntz moved to Wiverton Hall in Nottinghamshire which suffered the same fate.

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