At an earlier period the Priory of Penwortham in Lancashire was granted to this wealthy body, and in the time of William Rufus monks were sent to a religious house at Odensee in the island of Fuenen, in the Baltic sea, to instruct the members in the Evesham usage of the rule of Saint Benedict.

This Priory became a little later a cell of the great Abbey.
Life in the Monastery of Evesham seems to have been sustained at a high standard throughout its long career.

If all the "religious houses" had kept true to their vows and aims as that at Evesham did we should no doubt have a very different story to tell.

One abbot alone appears to have been an exception to this general rule of good conduct.

This was Roger Norreys, a "dissolute monk" of Canterbury, who was thrust upon the unwilling convent by Prince John when acting as regent in King Richard's absence.