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.

Initially prompted by a dispute over the annulment of the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534, and became the established church by an Act of Parliament in the Act of Supremacy, beginning a series of events known as the English Reformation.
In the same year there was a Visitation of the Monasteries, ostensibly to examine their character, but in fact to value their assets with a view to expropriation.
The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, however, was an entirely candid valuation of the income of the monasteries.
The Crown was undergoing financial difficulties, and the wealth of the church, allied to its political weakness, made appropriation of church property both tempting and feasible.
Shrewsbury Abbey's income was assessed by the Valor at precisely £527 15s.
5¾d.
Of this, £414 1s.
3¼d.
was contributed by the temporalities; essentially, property rents drawn from estates in 26 manors of Shropshire and seven in other counties.

Thomas Cromwell began the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, with the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act affecting the smaller houses valued at less than £200 a year.
This released a torrent of criticism of the larger monasteries that, like Shrewsbury, were comfortably above the threshold.
The governance of Thomas Butler, now abbot, was subjected to a litany of complaint to the government by Thomas Maddockes, a London merchant tailor.
Much was familiar: the infirmary was no more, numerous parts of the building were in disrepair, and accounting was slack.
However, there were instances too of funds being misdirected: the Wrockwardine tithes were no longer funding studies at Oxford, and those of Great Ness did not find their way to Henry V's chantry.
Even income intended to buy books for the choir was misappropriated.
Boteler was criticised personally for high-handedness and factionalism.
More generally, Madockes alleged that the word of God was never preached there since he was abbot."

In 1539 Cromwell moved to the dissolution of the larger monasteries which had escaped earlier, Shrewsbury among them.
Henry VIII personally devised a plan to form at least thirteen new dioceses so that most counties had a cathedral (a former monastery).
This plan included making Shrewsbury Abbey a cathedral, but, while new dioceses were established at Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, Peterborough, Westminster and Chester, the plans were never completed at Shrewsbury, Leicester, or Waltham.
The 1539 legislation did not dissolve the greater abbeys, but only made arrangements for receiving on the king's behalf any "which hereafter shall happen to be dissolved, suppressed, renounced, relinquished, forfeited, g
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.
Initially prompted by a dispute over the annulment of the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534, and became the established church by an Act of Parliament in the Act of Supremacy, beginning a series of events known as the English Reformation. In the same year there was a Visitation of the Monasteries, ostensibly to examine their character, but in fact to value their assets with a view to expropriation. The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, however, was an entirely candid valuation of the income of the monasteries. The Crown was undergoing financial difficulties, and the wealth of the church, allied to its political weakness, made appropriation of church property both tempting and feasible. Shrewsbury Abbey's income was assessed by the Valor at precisely £527 15s. 5¾d. Of this, £414 1s. 3¼d. was contributed by the temporalities; essentially, property rents drawn from estates in 26 manors of Shropshire and seven in other counties.
Thomas Cromwell began the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, with the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act affecting the smaller houses valued at less than £200 a year. This released a torrent of criticism of the larger monasteries that, like Shrewsbury, were comfortably above the threshold. The governance of Thomas Butler, now abbot, was subjected to a litany of complaint to the government by Thomas Maddockes, a London merchant tailor. Much was familiar: the infirmary was no more, numerous parts of the building were in disrepair, and accounting was slack. However, there were instances too of funds being misdirected: the Wrockwardine tithes were no longer funding studies at Oxford, and those of Great Ness did not find their way to Henry V's chantry. Even income intended to buy books for the choir was misappropriated. Boteler was criticised personally for high-handedness and factionalism. More generally, Madockes alleged that the word of God was never preached there since he was abbot."
In 1539 Cromwell moved to the dissolution of the larger monasteries which had escaped earlier, Shrewsbury among them. Henry VIII personally devised a plan to form at least thirteen new dioceses so that most counties had a cathedral (a former monastery). This plan included making Shrewsbury Abbey a cathedral, but, while new dioceses were established at Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, Peterborough, Westminster and Chester, the plans were never completed at Shrewsbury, Leicester, or Waltham. The 1539 legislation did not dissolve the greater abbeys, but only made arrangements for receiving on the king's behalf any "which hereafter shall happen to be dissolved, suppressed, renounced, relinquished, forfeited, g
Shrewsbury Abbey