There was no general policy of destruction, except in 

Lincolnshire where the local government agent

was so determined that the monasteries should never be restored that he razed as many as he
could to the ground. More often, the buildings have simply suffered from unroofing and neglect, or by
quarrying.[22]

Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, Augustinian nunnery converted into an aristocratic mansion and country estate

Once the new and re-founded cathedrals and other endowments had been provided for, the Crown
became richer to the extent of around £150,000 (equivalent to £97,356,000 in 2019), [23] per year,
although around £50,000 (equivalent to £32,452,000 in 2019) [23] of this was initially committed to fund
monastic pensions. Cromwell had intended that the bulk of this wealth should serve as regular
income of government. However, after Cromwell's fall in 1540, Henry needed money quickly to fund
his military ambitions in France and Scotland; and so monastic property was sold off, representing
by 1547 an annual value of £90,000 (equivalent to £52,838,000 in 2019). [23] Lands and endowments
were not offered for sale, let alone auctioned; instead the government responded to applications for
purchase, of which had indeed been a continual flood ever since the process of dissolution got under
way. Many applicants had been founders or patrons of the relevant houses, and could expect to be
successful subject to paying the standard market rate of twenty years' income. Purchasers were
predominantly leading nobles, local magnates and gentry; with no discernible tendency in terms of
conservative or reformed religion, other than a determination to maintain and extend their family's
position and local status. The landed property of the former monasteries included large numbers of
manorial estates, each carrying the right and duty to hold a court for tenants and others. Acquiring
such feudal rights was regarded as essential to establish a family in the status and dignity of the late
medieval gentry; but for a long period freehold manorial estates had been very rare in the market;
and families of all kinds seized on the opportunity now offered to entrench their position in the social
scale. Nothing would subsequently induce them to surrender their new acquisitions. The Court of
Augmentations retained lands and spiritual income sufficient to meet its continuing obligations to pay
annual pensions; but as pensioners died off, or as pensions were extinguished when their holders
accepted a royal appointment of higher value, then surplus property became available each year for
further disposal. The last surviving monks continued to draw their pensions into the reign of James
I (1603–1625), more than 60 years after the dissolution's end. [citation needed]