Most people are familiar with the Putney Ferry, a former Wandsworth institution, but we are not referring to the Putney Pier to Blackfriars service that currently ferries commuters “up to town”.

Because, according to the Wandsworth Historical Society, the first ferry to cross the Thames between Putney and Fulham was operating over 2,000 years ago, before the Romans conquered Britain.

However, many readers will remember that the last ferry to ply the river used to leave from the bottom of the Rotherwood Road on Putney Embankment to the river steps at the west end of Bishop’s Park.

The route was immensely popular and also a quick way to get to the park.

If people were going to watch Fulham play at Craven Cottage this was often the favoured means of transport and the skiff could be seen crisscrossing the river on Saturday afternoons before kick-off.

This stretch of the waterway was marshalled by a now legendary character, called Mr O’Dell, who was, according to local folklore, a large and barrell-chested man.

Mr O’Dell rowed a skiff that could carry, if they sat close together, up to six adults or eight to nine children at any one time.

Such were the laws at the time that the authorities had never heard of, let alone implemented, such an unnecessary concept as Health and Safety, so passengers happily boarded without life jackets and, as legend would have it, Mr O’Dell never lost a single passenger.

The Putney boatman could also often be seen nursing a pint of mild in the Duke’s Head after work as rowing a fully-laden skiff was no doubt back-breaking work.

Mr O’Dell operated the ferry on an intermittent basis after the war and he went out of business around 1948 or 1949 because of a lack of demand for its service.

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