Richard Pollard (MP)

One of his most notorious acts was his supervision of the destruction and pillaging of the shrine to Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in September 1538, which on account of the quantity of gold and precious stones within it took several days to complete.

The spoil of the shrine was stated by Stow in his Annales to have "filled two great chests such as six or seven strong men could do no more than convey one of them at once out of the church".

[8] Following this operation Pollard proceeded to Reading and Winchester to effect similar destruction with Thomas Wriothesley and John Wiliams.

[2] In 1537 he was granted by King Henry VIII the manor of Combe Martin in Devon [11] His influential position within the Court of Augmentations enabled him to acquire cheap bargains from the possessions of the dissolved religious houses.

His technique was similar to that used by George Rolle (by whom he was enlisted to help Lord Lisle[12]) in that he used his local knowledge to buy land which had a ready and profitable resale market when split into smaller lots, often being sold to the former tenants.