Historians have debated whether defence or revenue collection was the gatehouse's primary purpose. The Victorian antiquarian Mary Ellen Bagnall-Oakeley, who wrote the first history of the bridge and gate in 1902, described the gatehouse as "a little fortress complete in itself, though of course, useless in time of war".[33] Her account contended that the "tower was not in any way connected with the fortification walls of the town"[34] and that the gatehouse was erected solely "for the purpose of taking tolls".[34] The Monmouthshire antiquarian Joseph Bradney, in the first volume of his A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present Time, concurred; "the bridge is a curious structure which appears to have been more for the purpose of collecting tolls than anything else, though as a defence to the town outside the walls it might be of some help".[35] Kissack follows their arguments, noting that the gatehouse was ineffective in defensive terms, as the Monnow could easily be crossed on foot upstream.[36] More recent commentators disagree; Soulsby considered the bridge to have a clear defensive purpose,[37] and Michael Rowlands, author of the most recent history of the bridge and gatehouse, argued that the bridge and gatehouse met the dual aims of defensive protection and the collection of tolls.[38]