is an area within the district of
Morden in south west corner of the
London Borough Of Merton , to the west of
Morden Park and south of
Raynes Park .
Until it was absorbed by the
Suburban expansion of the
1930s , the
Hamlet of Lower Modern was a small rural farming community within the
Parish of
Morden approximately half a mile to the west of the main village situated at the top of the hill. Lower Morden had grown up around the
Village Green and the
Beverley And Pyl Brooks .
In the
1870s , the main properties of Lower Morden were Morden Farm (close to the modern school of the same name and on the site of Hatfeild School), Peacock Farm (now covered by Cranmer Close and Cardinal Avenue) and Hobalds Farm. Close by was Morden
Common .
Today nothing of the original
Hamlet remains except perhaps a few ancient trees and old field boundary lines followed by the alignments of the roads that were to replace them. The first major development was the establishment in
1891 of Battersea New Cemetery (now Morden Cemetery) on land adjacent to Hobalds Farm to the north of Green Lane. The loss of Morden
Common followed, its area now occupied by the Merton & Sutton Joint Cemetery and the Garth Road Industrial Estate. Garth Road is named after
The Garth Family ,
Lords Of The Manor from the mid
16th Century to the late
19th Century .
Up to the
Second World War the marshy land either side of the Pyl Brook now used as playing fields was cow pasture. The majority of residential development took place in the late
1930s with mock Tudor style houses being built between
Morden Park and Stonecot Hill and north between Grand Drive, Hillcross Avenue and Cannon Hill Lane.
