Away in the west midlands the registers of the neighbouring dioceses of Worcester and Hereford can be surveyed over the same half-century. Hereford, it is true, had only three houses of canons and three small houses of monks, but several of these were perpetually in trouble and provide copious information. Worcester for its part was rich in monasteries, with five major black-monk houses and several communities of Austin canons ranging from the abbeys of Bristol and Cirencester in the south to the small priory of Studley in the north. Both sees had able bishops: at Hereford the well-connected Thomas of Cantilupe, the future saint, was succeeded by his loyal official Richard of Swinfield, to be followed in turn by the energetic Adam of Orleton. At Worcester the long reign of Godfrey Giffard, brother of the archbishop of York, was followed after an interval by the distinguished ‘good clerk’, Thomas de Cobham.

Godfrey Giffard (1268-1301), like his brother, was a good administrator, at least till years told upon him, and it is unfortunate that only a few of his injunctions survive. Generally speaking, there is little difference between those to monks and to canons. Indeed, he occasionally served identical lists on large houses of both orders. In one of such pairs the two abbots are accused of dilapidation and of supporting unnecessary servants; the office is neglected by the community and there is a failure at every level of the administration to render accounts, with the result that no one knows what they have or what they spend.