Charles Castleman (solicitor)

Charles Castleman (1807–1876) was an English solicitor, railway planner, justice of the peace and prison inspector.[1]

Personal life

Born 1807 at Allendale House in Wimborne to William Castleman (founder of the Christchurch, Wimborne and Ringwood Bank), Charles was one of ten children, only three of whom survived into adulthood (Charles, Henry and Edward - all becoming solicitors). He first married Martha, who died of a fever at the age of 41 in 1848, and then married Louisa Hussey in 1852, who died of tuberculosis in 1854. He married Isabel Swinburne in 1859, and in 1862 they moved to the Glasshayes estate in Lyndhurst, New Forest. Whilst in residence at Lyndhurst he gifted the clock to the clocktower of the newly built local church of St Michael and All Angels.[2] He and Isabel later moved to Surrey, and then on to Bishopstoke in Eastleigh where he suffered kidney failure, dying on 17 July 1876.[3]

Railway career

In 1844 Castleman conceived of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, and approached the London and South Western Railway company (LSWR) with the idea. Fully operational by June 1847, the route was a success and (due to its circuitous pattern) is widely known as Castleman's Corkscrew, and remembered today in the Castleman Trailway. He was appointed director of the LSWR in 1855, then deputy chairman in 1859, and finally chairman in 1872.[4]

References
  1. "Thirty Second Report of the Inspectors Appointed under the Provisions of the Act 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 38., to Visit the Different Prisons of Great Britain," 1: Southern District. London, 1868. p.22
  2. The parishioners of Lyndhurst will be delighted to hear that Charles Castleman, Esq., of Glass Hayes Mansion, in this place, has munificently offered to give new first-rate church clock, to be placed in the new tower now building here - Salisbury and Winchester Journal Wiltshire, 5 Dec 1863
  3. Jolliffe, Bob. It was Curvy like a Corkscrew, Bournemouth Echo, 1 Apr 2008
  4. Jackson, Brian. Castleman's Corkscrew including the Railways of Bournemouth and Associated Lines, Oakwood Press publication (ISBN 9 780853 616665), 2008
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