built a castle near the confluence of the two rivers in around 1070. The following two centuries saw the establishment of the Benedictine Priory and the development of the town as a defensive location on the Welsh Marches. 12th–14th centuries The original bridge over the Monnow at Monmouth was constructed of wood in the mid-12th century. In 1988, work on flood defences revealed remains of the wooden bridge directly under the existing one, and dendrochronological analysis indicated that its timber came from trees felled between 1123 and 1169. An early account in the Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover may indicate that the wooden bridge and the nearby Church of St Thomas the Martyr were damaged by fire in the Battle of Monmouth in 1233, fought between supporters of Henry III and the forces of Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. Both the site of the battle and the specific bridge involved are debated—the local historian Keith Kissack argued that the battle was fought on Vauxhall Fields, below Monmouth Castle and some way from Monnow Bridge, while other modern historians continue to place the battle at Overmonnow. The stone bridge was completed in the late 13th century. It was traditionally thought to have been built in 1272, though this date has no supporting documentary evidence. The historian William Coxe incorrectly described the bridge as pre-dating the Norman Conquest and recorded that "it commanded the passage of the Monnow and was a barrier against the Welsh". In 1804, the Monmouth antiquarian Charles Heath wrote that the bridge's "foundation is so ancient that neither history or tradition afford any light respecting the date of its erection". Heath drew directly from The Antiquities of England and Wales, an earlier guide by Francis Grose, published in 1773. The archaeologist Martin Cook notes the significance of the date 1270 as the start of a period that saw increased bridge-building, as a result of the rapid growth of international trade. The civil engineer Edwyn Jervoise suggested that the absence of an evidential record was due to the destruction of the archives of the Duke of Beaufort at Raglan Castle in the 17th century. This is unlikely, as the gatehouse did not come into the possession of the duke's family, the Somersets, until the 19th century. The gatehouse, called Monnow Gate, which gives Monnow Bridge its now unique appearance, was added at the end of the 13th or