Malden Rushett
| Malden Rushett | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Crossroads at Malden Rushett | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ171610 |
| Location: | 51°20’12"N, 0°19’13"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Chessington |
| Postcode: | KT9 |
| Dialling code: | 01372 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Kingston |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Kingston and Surbiton |
Malden Rushett is a small village in Surrey, close by the edge of the conurbation, surrounded by woodland and farmland. It is to be found on at a crossroads, between Oxshott to the west, Chessington to the north, Epsom to the east and Leatherhead to the south, with Claygate and Ashtead close by. It stands on the crossroads of the A243 road from Kingston upon Thames towards Leatherhead and the B280 from Oxshott to Epsom. It consists of a few houses, two pubs and a petrol station.
The village is two miles from Junction 9 on the M25 motorway. The 'Explorer Gate' and car park) of Chessington World of Adventures are here.
History
Rushett was a detached part of the parish of Malden, five miles south-west of the main parish.[1] On 24 March 1884 it was transferred to the parish of Chessington.[2]
Malden Rushett was due to have had a railway station built as part of the Southern Railway's extension from Motspur Park to Leatherhead via Chessington. The line reached Chessington South in 1939 and work was well underway on the final part of the line to Malden Rushett and Leatherhead, which was expected to stimulate further housing development beyond Chessington. The railway was extended beyond Chessington South station as far as Chalky Lane, with a bridge built over this road. Work was halted due to the outbreak of Second World War, although the Royal Engineers did build a further railway embankment south of Chalky Lane which went as far as Chessington Wood and, probably, not far from the location where Malden Rushett station would have been built.
Following the introduction after the war of Green Belt legislation, little housing development could take place beyond Chessington South. Thus, the revenue earned from a station at Malden Rushett would have been minimal and the work was abandoned.
Rushett Common
South of Malden Rushett is Rushett Common, consisting of two strips of woodland alongside the A243, bounded by the woodlands of Princes Covert to the west and Epsom Common to the east. Within Rushett Common is Telegraph Hill – earlier known as Cabbage Hill – which was the site of a station on the Admiralty Shutter telegraph line. This used the shutter system to communicate between London and Portsmouth from 1796 until 1816. The buildings were small two-roomed wooden huts with a frame which held the six wooden shutters.[3] The station was replaced by a semaphore station built at Claygate.