In 1747 Samuel Dicker, local landowner and later MP for Plymouth, obtained permission to build a bridge at Walton. It was designed by William Etheridge and built by White of Weybridge to consist of "timbers tangent to a circle of 100 feet diameter" and was built so that a single timber could be extracted and repaired without disturbing the rest of the bridge. Old Walton Bridge was completed in August 1750 and acquired some fame, meriting an article in "The Gentleman's Magazine", a report in Daniel Defoe's Tour in 1753 and a painting by Canaletto in 1754. The painting, which shows the rococo-style of this bridge, is in Dulwich Picture Gallery.