After Burton Abbey was dissolved it was made into a collegiate church, with Abbot Edie as Dean; he was soon succeeded by Dr. Brocke. The Patent is dated July 27th, 1540. The Chapels of Shene, Cauldon, and Okeover, were allotted to the new foundation, and the possessions of the late Abbey were to be held of the Crown by a yearly rent of £62 2s. 4d., in lieu of first-fruits and tenths, and burdened with various pensions, stipends, and fees. A pretence was made that one of the objects of the transformation was that some of the wealth should go towards poor-relief and repair of roads. Some of the monks remained as Canons or Prebendaries; there was a Gospeller and an Epistoller, with five singing men, six choristers, two deacons, a parish priest, a schoolmaster, and four bedesmen. Among the “common servants” were a barber, parish clerk, bridgemaster, laundress, “turnbroche” or turnspit and apparitor. Robert Bradshawe, gent., was Porter of the Gate, and Nicholas Burwey, gent., was under-steward and clerk of the courts. It does not appear how much of the contents of the Abbey—vestments, plate, etc.—was removed when the change was made in its constitution, but a considerable amount remained at the final dissolution, which took place in 1545, when the place was given to Sir William Paget. Scudamore again did most of the work, associated now with Richard Goodrich. They rode in comfort and by easy stages from London to Burton, living sumptuously and extravagantly, and spent four days at Burton in the performance of their task. Again the best of the goods were not sold but carried up to London, wrapped in ten yards of canvas and borne on a horse specially hired for the purpose at a cost of £1 6s. 8d.[195]

From the inventories and surrenders, supplementing Valor Ecclesiasticus, we are able to form some idea as to the mode of living in the monasteries, and the standard of comfort which was reached. Doubtless the obligation to perform manual work had in most cases been forgotten, otherwise the large number of servants and labourers cannot well be accounted for. At Dieulacres[196] there were thirteen monks, six stewards and bailiffs (excluding “my lord of Derby,” whose office was a sinecure), a forester, and eleven others who had to be pensioned, besides thirty servants and “the launders and pore bedewomen.” The last-named probably did the Abbey washing. The “household” is a large one in comparison with the number of monks, even when we take into account the sheep-runs of the Abbey. Still more excessive is the staff of twenty-nine servants at Stafford for the seven canons; for the Priory of St. Thomas, though it had scattered possessions, employed in 1535 nine or ten stewards and bailiffs. Their baker was a person of sufficient importance to receive a pension of 10s. a year. The four nuns at Brewood had eight servants, although their house and income were alike small. They must have had an idle time, and when they were ejected with small pensions of £3 6s. 8d. to the Prioress, and half that amount to each of the three nuns, the change in their style of living must have been very marked and painful.

Payments to lay officials, such as stewards, bailiffs, rent-collectors, and auditors, appear in Valor Ecclesiasticus as follows: Brewood Nunnery (4), nil; Burton-on-Trent, £28; Croxden (13), £7; Dieulacres (13), £5 6s. 8d.; Dudley, £2 6s. 8d.; Hulton, £6; Rocester (9), £2 13s. 4d.; Ronton, £4 6s. 8d.; St. Thomas’s (7), £11 13s. 4d.; Stone, £3 6s. 8d.; Trentham, £5; Tutbury (9), £18 13s. 4d.: Total, £94 6s. 8d. The figures in brackets show the number of religious, where these can be ascertained. At Dudley and Trentham these must have been very few, yet at the latter the expenditure on administration was £5. Tutbury also spent large sums on management. On the other hand, Rocester, with nine canons and two stewards, and a small expenditure on management, appears in a favourable light. The canons at Rocester were on good terms with their neighbours, and the house was almost unique among the smaller houses in Staffordshire in the matter of charity. The general impression of the canons of Rocester is that they were living quiet, simple lives, working hard themselves, and held in respect.

The Nunnery at Brewood[197] possessed a hall, parlour, kitchen, buttery, and larder, with a large bedroom (in which they all slept on two bedsteads) and a bailiff’s chamber. Of outhouses there were brewhouse and cooling house, bolting house for kneading bread, cheeseloft, and a “kylhouse,” all of which were more or less adequately furnished. There were hangings of painted cloth in the parlour. In the hall there were two tables but only one form. The nuns’ bedroom contained a feather bed and one tester of white linen cloth, two coverlets and a blanket described as old, one bolster, two pillows and four pairs of sheets. The bailiff slept on a mattress on the floor, with a coverlet and blanket. His axe remained in his bedroom when the house was sold. A table-cloth and two latten candlesticks, a bushel and a half of salt, four pewter porringers, four platters, and two saucers, which are mentioned, also throw light on the standard of living. Of grain they had a quarter of wheat (6s. 2d.), a quarter of “munke-corne” (8s.), a quarter of oats (1s. 8d.), and a quarter of peas (2s. 8d.). The bread they made was of good quality: rye is not even mentioned. Their one horse was sold for 4s., the wain and dung-cart for 16d. They had ten loads of hay (15s.).

With this we may compare the abbey and out-buildings at Dieulacres.[198] In the cloister was a lavatory. No beds or bedding are mentioned in the dorter or dormitory, which the monks had forsaken for more comfortable quarters in smaller bedrooms, of which there were several. The corner chamber was luxuriously provided with a mattress, feather bed, bolster, and two pillows, a blanket and coverlet, a tester of “dorney,” a hanging of sey (silk), etc. In the inner chamber also was a mattress. In the ryder’s chamber were two bedsteads, a hanging of painted cloth, etc. In the butler’s chamber were a mattress and feather bed and four coverlets, a bolster and two pillows. In the buttery were five napkins, three pewter salts, eight hogsheads, six candlesticks, etc.; in the larder, a salting vat; in the kitchen, five great brass pots, four small pans, a cauldron, three spits, a frying pan, a gridiron, thirty-eight plates, dishes, and saucers, a grater, two chafing dishes, a brass “skimmer,” etc. There was a brewhouse, bolting-house and labourers’ chamber (with two mattresses and two coverlets).

Their live stock consisted of six oxen (sold for £4 5s.), sixty ewes and lambs (£3 6s. 8d.), three horses (£1), and twelve swine (13s. 4d.). Of grain they had 159 bushels of oats (£11 19s.), and rye worth £1 1s., with twenty-nine loads of hay which sold for £3.

At St. Thomas’s, Stafford,[199] the seven religious and twenty-nine “servants” had stores as follows:

Wheat.Rye and Munke-corn.Barley.Peas.Hay.
Arberton Grange3 qrs.11 qrs.40 qrs.10 qrs.20 loads
Berkswick Grange12 „ 4 „ 
St. Thomas’s Priory12 „ 

There were also the following farm implements and horses:

Waggons.Harrows.Ploughs.Cart.Cart Horses.Mares.
Arberton Grange22132
Berkswick Grange222