After the abbey's surrender in 1539, it was, from September 1542 until June 1544, the seat of the new Bishops of Oxford before the see transferred to the new foundation of Christ Church. It has been described as the greatest building Oxford has lost. Great Tom, the bell described as the 'loudest thing in Oxford', now hanging in Tom Tower at Christ Church, was taken from the tower of Osney Abbey on its dissolution. A good deal of the monastic property was also transferred to Christ Church, and the remains of the abbey remained as a source of building material for the city and by Charles I during the Civil War. Drawings of the remains were commissioned by John Aubrey in 1640 and the much reduced ruins were later drawn by Thomas Hearne of St Edmund Hall in 1720.