Last week on the Memory Lane page we featured a brief history of the University Boat Race.

But the article seemed to provoke a reaction from several readers keen to know more about the history of the starting point of the race - Putney Bridge.

There are many versions of how the bridge came to be built but the most popular harks back to 1720 when Sir Robert Walpole, our first Prime Minister, was allegedly returning from an appointment with King George I in Kingston.

Sir Robert was in a hurry to get to the House of Commons and rode with his servant to Putney to take the ferry across to Fulham.

On arrival, he found the ferry was on the opposite side of the river, and the waterman, who was drinking in the Swan pub, ignored the calls of the minister and his servant forcing them to take another route.

Appalled by this lack of obedience, Walpole vowed that a new bridge would replace the ferry.

Construction of the bridge was first sanctioned by an Act of Parliament in 1726 and it opened for the first time in November 1729.

In 1870, the bridge was badly damaged after being hit by a barge which lead to its demolition, but in 1886 it was finally replaced by the stone bridge that stands today.

The current bridge is some 700ft long and 43ft wide, and was opened by the King Edward VII and Princess of Wales on May 29 1886.

Other notable incidents include the alleged attempted suicide of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who jumped from the bridge after returning from a trip to Sweden to discover that her lover having an affair with an actress.

In March 1953, British serial killer and necrophiliac, John Christie was finally arrested on Putney Bridge after a year long hunt by police.

The Bridge is also unique in that it is the only one in Britain to have a church at both ends; the ancient St. Mary's Church is on the south bank; All Saints Church is on the north bank and both featured in the 1976 horror film The Omen.

In 2007, the Grade II listed structure suffered considerable damage when a developer cut several holes into the Cornish Granite of the Putney end of the bridge.