Rudgwick sits right on the Surrey and Sussex border, technically falling within West Sussex under Horsham District Council. The parish church of St Mary Magdalene has 12th century origins, with a distinctive shingled spire that serves as a landmark across the surrounding farmland. The church contains some good medieval features, including a 13th century lancet window and fragments of wall painting.
The village was connected to the Wealden iron industry, which operated across this border region for centuries. The heavy clay soils of the Weald contained bands of iron ore, and the abundant woodland provided charcoal for smelting. Hammer ponds, where streams were dammed to create waterfalls that powered trip hammers and bellows, dotted the landscape. Several survive as quiet ponds in the surrounding woods. The iron industry declined from the 17th century as production shifted to the coalfields.
The Rudgwick Brickworks, active from the Victorian era until the mid-20th century, exploited the local Weald Clay for brick and tile making. The disused clay pits have since been reclaimed as a nature reserve, with ponds, wetland, and scrubby woodland providing habitat for dragonflies, newts, and nesting birds. The old railway line, which ran from Guildford to Horsham via Cranleigh and closed in 1965 under the Beeching cuts, now forms part of the Downs Link long-distance path. The flat, surfaced trail is popular with walkers and cyclists travelling between the North Downs and the South Downs. Palaeontologists have found iguanodon fossils in the Weald Clay around Rudgwick, evidence of the dinosaurs that inhabited this landscape over a hundred million years ago.