In common with other local landowners Sir William interested himself in the prospect of improving the existing system of railway development in and around Cheltenham. In 1861 he opposed the building of a railway between Cheltenham and Bourton-on-the-Water, but this may have been because he himself was then closely concerned with another railway, also running eastwards, which later that year was launched as the East Gloucestershire Railway and became the subject of several Private Acts of Parliament between 1862 and 1868. The first of these, the Act of 1862, authorized the making of three short stretches of railway, but it never came into operation, effectively being enacted conditionally on agreement being reached immediately as to the route of a further route running in Cheltenham which was not forthcoming within the time limited by the Act. Thus everything collapsed and a fresh Act had to be obtained in 1864. In both of these Acts Sir William's name appears first amongst the Promoters which included other local men of importance, amongst them Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach, later Earl St. Aldwyn.
The Company's Act of 1864 provided for six lines of railway which when taken together and with those of other railways with which it was hoped to cooperate would have provided a link between Cheltenham and Oxford and then London, and a connection North of Oxford with another railway running eastwards towards Cambridge and the eastern Counties. Unfortunately it was not possible to achieve all that had been hoped for. Only a small 12-mile length of line was ever built by the Company and this was opened in 1873. In 1890 the Company was taken over by the Great Western railway Company paying £2. 7s. 6d. for each £10. 0s. 0d. of the Gloucestershire Company's Ordinary Stock.
Despite the obvious lack of success it must be appreciated that this enterprise was not purely speculative but a bona fide attempt by local landowners to improve on what they rightly considered were inadequate facilities - particularly towards London - that had been provided for the district by the Great Western and the Midland Railway Companies.
In 1868 Sir William decided, presumably with a view to disposal by sale or mortgage, to have his title to the land properly owned by him in the Parish of Charlton Kings and the locality registered at the Office of Land Registry under the Land Transfer Act 1862. This was an exceptional action, since in general the facilities afforded by the Act had not proved attractive to landowners or their legal advisers.
So far as it concerns the Parish of Charlton Kings, the title to the Manor or Lordship of the Manor of Ashley, valued at £3000 was to be registered and also to Charlton Park (of which part fell also in the Parish of Cheltenham) containing about 113 acres and valued at £56,000. In addition there were 22 separate named estates including Charlton and Ravensgate Commons. Taken as a whole, the entire application, which also affected land outside the Parish of Charlton Kings related to about 2,107 acres of land which, when the Manor of Ashley is included, had a total value of just under £250,000.
All this property passed away from Sir William after he suffered a financial disaster in 1870 (see below). The Manor of Ashley, however, came back to the third Baronet in the early part of the 20th century.
As to the financial disaster, in outline, a company was created under two private Acts of Parliament passed in 1865 and 1866 to exploit a concession which had been obtained by two men, one of whom was a V.C. of the Crimean War, to utilize the effluent from the London Northern Outfall Sewer in fertilizing for agricultural purposes some 7,000 acres of foreshore that the company was authorized to reclaim off the Essex coast at Maplin Sands. The effluent was to be conveyed by brick conduit, required to be not less than 9½ feet in diameter cross-country from Abbey Mills, near Bow, to Maplin, a distance of some 30 miles. The Acts envisaged that the reclaimed fore-shore was to be converted into farmland, populated, and eventually incorporated administratively into the mainland.
Public support for the company was [understandably] not forthcoming, and the subject of sewage farming in general was then a matter of serious concern to agriculturists and others, and it is of interest to see that the Institute of Surveyors was prepared to devote two of its meetings in 1871 to hearing and discussing a progress report from the Manager of the farm that the company had succeeded in establishing at Lodge Farm, Barking. From this it seems that marketable and profitable crops could be obtained, although the general verdict at the end was that the matter required further study and discussion.
After the failure of the Sewage Company to obtain public support, Sir William appears to have carried on business as a ship-owner at 19 Billiter Street in the City of London and it was from that business address that in March 1870 he presented his petition to the London Bankruptcy Court for the liquidation of his affairs by arrangement, admitting debts of £575,000 (some £42M using today's RPI) which he was unable to pay. The petition was successful, and in June 1870 a majority of creditors appointed a trustee to carry out the liquidation. It is to be noted that this course of action did not incur a formal stigma of bankruptcy, but there can be little doubt that Sir William's creditors stripped him of almost all his possessions including the landed property, and he was obliged to vacate Charlton Park.
It might be thought that such misfortunes would have necessitated his complete retirement into obscurity. But Sir William Russell was made of sterner stuff and for a time he remained in public life. In 1871 he not only became a Lieutenant-General on the Retired List, but published his own scheme for the reorganization of the Army (this being the time of Lord Cardwell's reforms). He then continued as M.P. for Norwich until 1874 when he retired. Sir William Russell died aged 69, at his home, 66 Gloucester Street, Warwick Square , London, on 19 March 1892 leaving a personal estate of £78. Surviving him were his widow Margaret, the two sons, William and Albert and daughter, Margaret Jane.
The Second Baronet had the reputation of being the handsomest man in the British Army and he strove to have everything about him big and grand, even down to his hairbrushes and his armchair. But he was a fine soldier with a host of friends who did not leave him in his time of trouble but helped as best they could when financial disaster befell him and his family. The First Baronet was handsome too in a less flamboyant and more scholarly way than that of his son, being a most distinguished Doctor
The third Sir William Russell was educated at Fettes School, Edinburgh, and obtained a post having special responsibilities as Assistant Auditor of the Civil List at the Treasury. He was a sportsman and very well liked, having to accept that though he was brought up to be rich, he must come to terms with the fact that he was not. The Third Baronet never married, and died at his sister's home in Shropshire in 1915.
Are there any relics of the three Baronets in Charlton Kings today? Apart from the memorial to the First baronet and Lady Prinn in St. Mary's Parish Church there seems to be nothing. We have no Russell Streets or Roads, and the Russell Arms in Hales Road displays the Arms of the Duke of Bedford. However, as we pass the Eagle Gates on the Cirencester Road entrance to St. Edward's School today we can bear in mind the following passage from the 1863 Queen's edition of Norman's History of Cheltenham which is a useful indication of local opinion of the Second Baronet and his family at that time, "We thus see that...down to Dr. Russell, the benevolent and philanthropic preventer of the spread of a dire epidemic, and his son Sir W. Russell, bart. The patriot, the statesman, and defender of his country - that this family has acquired their honour and renown by their intrinsic merits. On this account they deserve to be recorded on the pages of not only local but national history. The ancient family crest surmounts the massive pillars at the entrance to the mansion at Charlton Park, and it is truly characteristic of the military courage displayed by the owner - a Spread Eagle issuing from a coronet."
© Cotswold ImagesThe Cirencester Road entrance to Charlton Park today leads to St Edward's School.
The dry stone wall is c1826-7: two outer piers with eagle-in-coronet (re-sited here c1939). Carriage gates with piers and urn finials c1736-1748 with flanking pedestrian gates of Chinese Chippendale design.