Evidence from the reign of King Henry VIII seems to show the abbey suffering from neglect and maladministration in its later years. Abbot Richard Lye lavished the resources of the monastery on his own family. On 25 October 1508 he granted to his sister Joan and her husband, John Copeland, a large weekly ration of bread and ale, twelve wagonloads of wood annually from Lythwood, and tithes of corn and hay from the townships of Prescott and Stanwardine in the Wood, in Baschurch parish. They also received property: a dwelling house and a shop in Shrewsbury, and meadowland and another home in Colneham. It seems that this generosity with others' property had gone on for some time, as they were also given the reversion of further meadowland then occupied by Joan and the abbot's father, Lodovic Lye. The gifts were limited to Joan's lifetime, apart from the shop and houses, which were to pass to her husband for his lifetime if he survived her. Episcopal visitations from the time of Abbot Richard Baker complain of unpaid debts, poor accounting, buildings in decay and land leased without consulting the chapter. This apparently refers to the grants to Joan and John Copeland, which had been made nominally on behalf of abbot and convent together. The infirmary was in ruins and Thomas Butler, the subprior, had taken its glass for his own chamber.