Place Name
Originally called Cutthrough Lane as seen by the Ordnance Survey maps of 1874, presumably because it cut through the fields between Kingston Road and Putney Road. Dorian Gerhold, the authority on the local area’s history writes in Putney and Roehampton Past: “In general, the higher the lad in Putney the less fertile it was. The highest part of the parish is the plateau which forms Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common. This is capped by gravels which give a thin, sterile soil, capable of supporting little more than heather, birch and grass.” In days gone by the heath was known as a location where disputes between gentlemen were settled through sword or pistol duels. One notable duel in 1809 involved Prime Minister George Canning and his political rival, Lord Castlereagh. In the 18thCentury, a military encampment had been set up on the heath during periods of tension with France. The most common explanation behind the name of Putney is that it is of Anglo-Saxon origin and means Putta’s quay or landing place, although an alternative suggestion is that it may be from the Anglo Saxon word pyttel (hawk) meaning the hawks’ landing place, alluding to birds attracted to the river’s fish. Caroline Taggart in The Book of London Place Names writes that it may have been a nickname saying: “More likely… Putta or his father or grandfather was given this nickname because he kept hawks, looked after hawks for the local lord or, equally plausible, had a hawk-like nose.” Whatever the case it was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 written as Putelei, this spelling says John Field in Place-Names of Greater London “exhibits a number of Norman peculiarities, including the confusion of l and n, and an insensitivity to certain other consonant sounds” but having taken the country by conquest the Normans were perhaps less interested in native sensitivities. The name featured again in 1279 written as Puttenhuthe and Putneth in 1474. The first time the contemporary spelling came about was in 1639 when it was recorded as Putney al. Puttenheath. Gerhold writes: “The standard explanation is that Putelei simply reflected the inability of the Normans to spell English place-names, and that Puttenhythe combined references to the Anglo-Saxon personal name Putta and the hythe or landing place, which would have been the settlements most distinctive feature. Unfortunately this does not mean that a landing place must have existed since the Anglo-Saxons arrived, for place names continued to change until the eleventh or twelfth centuries, indeed it has been suggested that Putney may once have been called Baston (the ‘tun’ or settlement of Bass or Bassa), the name of the field east of the High Street. Not does it entail us to regard Putta, whoever he was, as the founder of Putney. Another theory is that Putelei in 1086 was not an error but the survival of the name of the Romano-British settlement, derived from the Latin word puteal, meaning the stone kerb or enclosure around a well or spring. This theory has itself been challenged on linguistic grounds.”
