It is argued that Richard became very unpopular because he diverted roads and waterways in order to raise funds for the Abbey. The Abbess herself seems to have been in charge of the local market at Cippenham. The historian Judith Hunter said that much land was granted to the Abbey, and it is thought that the nuns ran a small school and a 'guest house where travellers and pilgrims could find food and accommodation'.

The Abbey Convent for Augustinian Nuns was broken up in September 1539 and each of the ten remaining nuns were given pensions, but that was not the end of Burnham Abbey. Along with the other religious houses that fell at the Dissolution, it became Crown property, but was then leased to William Tyldesly by the King. After Tyldesly died in 1563 his widow married Paul Wentworth, and they continued to lease the property. They carried out some renovations, and some of these are still in evidence today.

Over the next two centuries, the property had many owners, but became increasingly run-down and dilapidated. In the nineteenth century it was used as a farm for a time, and this may account for a degree of preservation in some of the buildings. In the early twentieth century it was purchased by Mr Bissley of Maidenhead who made an attempt to restore parts of it, creating a small chapel out of the old Chapter House. In 1916 the buildings became a nunnery again when the buildings were purchased by the Society of the Precious Blood. The society is a Church of England Community of nuns who followed the rules written by St. Augustine.