 Local historian Frank Latham has speculated that the abbey's proximity to the Chester–Shrewsbury road proved an intolerable drain on its resources.The abbey was one of four to complain to Edward, the Black Prince in 1351 about the cost of providing hospitality to guests and their servants, horses and hunting hounds.The monks and abbot attributed their situation in 1328 to financial mismanagement by earlier abbots, who had leased out many of the abbey's estates to tenants, often at poor terms.