The first mention made of Putney--styled "Putenhie" in the Conqueror's Domesday Book, and "Puttenheth" in all subsequent records--is in connection with the fishery and ferry which existed here at the time of the Conquest. In 1663 the fishery was held for the three best salmon caught in March, April, and May, but this rent was afterwards converted to a money value. At the sale of Sir Theodore Janssen's estates the fishery was let for £6 per annum. The rent was afterwards increased to £8, and a lease upon those terms expired in 1780. Since 1786 this fishery has been abandoned. Mention is also made that occasionally a porpoise was caught here, and, as a matter of fact, two watermen shot one here lately; but it was confiscated, and the men fined for discharging firearms on the river. The ferry at the time of the Conquest yielded 20s. a year to the Lord of the Manor, and Putney appears at all times to have been a considerable thoroughfare, as it was usual formerly for persons travelling from London to the West of England to come as far as this by water. In Elizabeth's reign it was ordered that watermen should pay a halfpenny for every stranger, and a farthing for every inhabitant of Putney, to the ferry-owner, or be fined 2s. 6d. In 1629 the Lord of the Manor received 15s. per year for the ferry.
In 1726, the twelfth year of George I.'s reign, an Act of Parliament was passed for building a wooden bridge from Putney to Fulham, which was finished in the year 1729 at an expense of £23,975, and the ferry was bought up, those interested in it being paid proportionately. The plan for the bridge was drawn by the celebrated Mr. Cheselden, Surgeon of Chelsea Hospital. The bridge was 789 feet long and 24 feet wide, with openings for vessels to pass through, the largest of which, in the centre, was named Walpole's Lock, in honour of Sir Robert Walpole, who helped to procure the Act of Parliament to build the bridge. A toll of a halfpenny was charged foot-passengers, and on Sundays this was doubled, for the purpose of raising a fund of £62 a year, which was divided annually between the widows and children of poor watermen belonging to Putney and Fulham as a recompense to the fraternity, who were not allowed to ply on Sundays after the building of the bridge. This bridge was purchased by the Corporation of London, and by them transferred to the Board of Works, who erected in the years 1884-1886 the present substantial stone bridge on the site formerly occupied by the aqueduct of the Chelsea Waterworks Company. The approaches on both sides have been greatly improved, and it is now toll-free.