North Shields 19th Century Version of B&Q
Author of Secret North Shields and Tynemouth, Walking History of North Shields and Tynemouth, Haswells of North Shields, William Twizell – His Life & Times in 19th Century North Shields, and John Wright & His Sons: The Men Who Moved North Shields Uphill
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For most of the 19th century, the Twizell family were North Shields’ version of B&Q.
John Twizell had been born in Newbiggin in 1791 but he lost his father to drowning when he was just 9 years old.
John was an ambitious soul — he wanted a better life than was then available in Newbiggin and he was conscious that steam ships were the future. The first passenger-carrying steamship was launched in 1812.
By 1818 he was in North Shields and entered into a partnership with Ralph and Adam Young, running a ship’s chandler business on Clive Street.
A year later he married Elizabeth Stephenson, the daughter of a house carpenter.
A year farther on and he dissolved the partnership with the Youngs and began trading as John Twizell & Co.
He quickly extended his business beyond yacht chandlery into ironmongery.
By the 1830s, he had begun owning steamships — at least four — which carried goods between Alexandria in Egypt and the coast of Syria.
He and Elizabeth had three sons who reached adulthood.
The Twizell Sons
John Stephenson Twizell, born in 1820, was the apple of his father’s eye — the only son to become a partner in the steamship side of the business as well as helping to run the ironmongery.
The youngest son, William, born in 1829, seems to have spent most of his father’s lifetime as simply an ironmonger’s assistant.
That, I believe, was a mistake on John’s part — had William been better trained in management, the Twizell name might still be a well-known trading name locally today.
The second son, Henry (born 1821), chose a life at sea. He would come to regret that.
A Business and a Legacy
The business went from strength to strength. John constantly looked for new products to stock and became a major plumbing supplier when indoor toilets became possible for ordinary houses.
By 1836, he was active in local civic affairs as a member of the North Shields & Tynemouth Association for Prosecuting Felons, which made several resolutions — including prosecuting thieves and animal abusers, and assisting constables in their duties.
John took these responsibilities seriously — even bankrupting those who owed him money, including one debtor already imprisoned in Morpeth.
He was deeply involved in local affairs, attending meetings on railway expansion, serving as a Guardian of the Poor, and later as an Alderman on the new Tynemouth Borough Council.
Steamships, Civic Pride, and Community Impact
John’s ironmongery shops at 74 and 75 Clive Street (and later Tyne Street) became central to the town’s industrial identity.
He chaired the Tynemouth Gas Board, sat on the Tyne Marine Insurance Company committee, and helped fundraise for the North Shields & Tynemouth Dispensary.
He was a key figure in the foundation of the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade in 1864 after the tragic Black Middens shipwrecks — and both John and William helped oversee volunteer training.
Family Tragedies and the Decline of a Dynasty
The Twizell story took darker turns in later years.
Henry, the sailor son, endured horrifying torture at the hands of Chinese pirates after surviving a shipwreck in 1839 — an ordeal that left him traumatised for life.
He later died by suicide in 1870, just weeks after the death of his brother John Stephenson in Egypt.
Their widowed father, John, died three years later in 1873.
The obituary described him as:
“One of the first members of Tynemouth Council on the incorporation of the borough… a director of the old Steam Ferry Company… one of the oldest directors of the Tynemouth Gas Company… and a trustee of the Tyne Sailor’s Home.”
William Twizell: The Last Man Standing
After being little more than an employee, William was suddenly in charge of the family’s entire operation — the ships, the shops, the name.
He was a Freemason, joining St George’s Lodge in 1853, and later becoming Worshipful Master.
He married Jane Atkinson in 1854 and they had four surviving children: Elizabeth, Thomas Atkinson, William Edward, and John.
Through the 1860s, he became more prominent in civic and business circles, but tragedy and financial strain continued to follow him.
The business survived shipwrecks, family deaths, a violent incident involving a revolver sold from one of his shops, and growing competition from rival ironmongers.
Eventually, in 1883, J. Twizell & Sons and Reid (his later partnership with Isaac Brandon Reid, brother of his late friend Nathaniel) went bankrupt.
Three years later, William died in 1886 aged 57. His estate amounted to the modern-day equivalent of just £3,000 — a shadow of the wealth once held by the Twizells.
He was buried in Preston Cemetery alongside his wife Jane, their children Annie Jane, Thomas Atkinson, and Elizabeth.
Even after death, the community remembered him. When committee elections came up in 1887, one member remarked:
“He was a serious loss to the area.”
And when funds remained from the defunct Low Lights Dock project, they were donated to the infirmary — because, as one member said, “He would have approved.”
The Twizell Legacy
From a boy in Newbiggin dreaming of steamships to a dynasty that shaped the very skyline of North Shields, the Twizell story is one of ambition, innovation, loss, and resilience.
They were the 19th-century version of B&Q — ironmongers, engineers, and entrepreneurs who helped lay the foundations of modern North Shields.
Their mark lingers not just in the archives, but in the spirit of the town itself.
Written by: David Scholey
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