A few years ago I read Laurie Lee’s book, “As I Walked Out One Morning”
The book is set in the mid 1930’s when Laurie walked from Gloucestershire to London en route to Spain, stopping in Putney and finding work on a building site.
He later becoming involved in a strike on the site.
I pictured him working on a block of flats to the east of Putney Hill, somewhere around Carlton Drive, perhaps.
Architecturally Putney hasn’t much changed since the 30’s, a still glamorous age, having as many horses as horseless, carriages and the streets not blighted by traffic. Walking down Deodar Road and crossing the river by the rail and footbridge is a pleasure taking me back to the 1930’s.
Local history is amusing, quite real, and of course geographically accessible. Putney has lots of it.
Duels at dawn were had on Putney Heath- quite a few over the years. It was here, in May 1798, William Pitt, the Prime Minister, no less, had duelled with George Tierney an MP.
Tierney had challenged Pitt, after Pitt accused him of reluctance to defend the country from Napoleon-Tierney was opposed to enlarging the navy. Both duellists missed.
Ten years later, in 1809, another duel, Viscount Castlereagh, War Minister at the time, shot George Canning, foreign secretary, in the thigh because of a treacherous political manoeuvre by Canning.
Certainly those centuries bred a different politician and I expect some voters now would be pleased to see the return of, if not duelling, then, a demonstration of honour worth defending with one’s life.
The dawn duelling took place near to the Green Man Pub where the parties often went for a drink beforehand. “Pistols for two and breakfast for one” was the local saying.
Highwaymen, they say, preyed on the intoxicated leaving this pub. But I wouldn’t call their behaviour that of a highwayman. They were mere muggers, surely.
The feminist novelist, Mary Wollstonecraft, threw herself off Putney Bridge after the father of her child jilted her. That was 1795, so it was an earlier bridge. She survived and later had another daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who became a novelist and wrote the novel Frankenstein.
There’s lots more if you’re interested…
Joe