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In late 1535, Henry VIII initiated a series of visitations of monasteries, evaluating their property and the conduct of monks. In 1536 order of suppression was given to surrender those religious houses with an annual income of less that £200. This beginning of the dissolution of the monasteries, with its attendant dispersal of the monks, confiscation of land and destruction of relics, combined with Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his break with the Roman Catholic church, sparked revolt in the north. Beginning in Lincolnshire, the uprising spread quickly to Yorkshire and other northern counties. It comprised peers, gentry and peasants, under the banner of the five wounds of Christ, who called themselves "pilgrims". 30,000 to 40,000 men were involved. It lasted until spring 1537, when the leaders were arrested and executed.
At the court of 3 May, two messuages and two bovates of land and an acre of headland in Clifton were granted out to new tenants, having been seized into the lord's hands. They had been held by Roche Abbey, which had been visited late in the previous year by the king's commissioners (the king was also lord of Conisbrough manor). The lands were said to have been held for "twelve years and longer" by the abbey without an entry fine having been paid, and so were subject to seizure. The court record said to have made this clear, 6 October 23 Henry VIII, shows no indication of the lands in question, nor is the date correct for October. It may be that 1523 was meant (which would be twelve years and longer before), rather than 23 Henry VIII as stated. At the 15 December court in the 1523/24 roll, Thomas Bosewell applied for a licence to heriot for various lands, including two messuages and two bovates in Clifton. Whether these are the lands in question is impossible to ascertain. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the seizure, the abbey had apparently been occupying the lands for years without causing concern. Proclamation of the seizure was said to have been made at three previous courts, as would have been customary in these cases. This would mean that the seizure would probably have been ordered in January, not long after the visitation of Roche Abbey. The abbey just avoided the surrender ordered in 1536 for houses with an annual income under £200 (its income was £220). This might have been part of an attempt to reduce its income as well as to bring the lands under the control of the lord.
At the court held on 28 March, Robert Strey, clerk, was granted a licence to hold six tenements in Conisbrough and Clifton by an indenture certificate. This is suggestive of lands to be held in return for his scribal services to the manor. One land transfer relates to subletting land held for a fixed term (likely to be demesne land). The three land surrenders at the December court were all carried out on behalf of the holder by another tenant, sworn. These could be "death-bed" transfers, made at the same time as a will dealing with chattels and any freehold land. In any case, the court was clearly sanctioning out-of-court transfers, provided they were later surrendered into the court and an entry fine paid.
The 1536 roll records less business that earlier rolls. Earlier stages of pleas are not recorded in the same detail, and presentments for offences are fewer, in particular those for baking and brewing against the assize. Only five women were amerced for brewing against the assize, and two for baking. Affrays and offences against regulations regarding the open fields and commons predominate. Five men were amerced for not having coalpits filled in by a certain day.