Malden Rushett

The bit of map reproduced at reference 1 prompted me to wonder, once again, where the name 'Malden Rushett' came from.

It seems that back at the time of the Conquest, Malden was quite a big parish (or perhaps manor in those days), stretching down from Old Malden (top middle right) to what was then Lower Malden and is now Malden Rushett (bottom left middle). A wooded area and the few people living down at Malden Rushett had to go up to the church at Old Malden to get themselves born, married and buried. Whereas now they can go to Chessington.

The Rushett bit derives from the fact that there were lots of rushes, so perhaps Lower Malden was indeed lower than Old Malden, despite the general drift being down to the Thames to the north, possibly connected in a marshy way to the two ponds of Epsom Common, bottom middle, where there are indeed lots of rushes.

Some time later, the railway came along and New Malden was invented a little to the north of Old Malden. A place now worth big type on the map.

Some time later, a farm near what is now Malden Rushett came to be called Rushett Farm.

And finally, Lower Malden and Rushett Farm were conflated at the cross roads to become Malden Rushett - quite a community now, serviced by the nearby petrol station and public house - while Lower Malden faded away and disappeared from most maps. Rushett Farm survives.

PS: with thanks to the Ordnance Survey for the use of their map.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/convenience-map.html.