Yellowley & Daglish - grocers from Newcastle

Shown here is the cover of a catalogue from October 1958 published by Yellowley & Daglish Ltd - wholesale grocers, provision merchants and confectioners from Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Company claims to be "The North's Leading Wholesalers", with "25 Fully Trained Representatives covering the Counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire & North Lancashire".

It also shows the business has been "Established over 200 Years" - but I don't think that it has traded under this name for all of this time.

On 6 May 1856, William Daglish and Henry Yellowley agreed to take over the existing grocer's business run by William Yellowley in Pilgrim Street, Newcastle - so possibly the business was previously run by the Yellowley family. Both William and Henry Yellowley were already involved in the grocery business.

William Daglish was born in Morpeth, and was married twice. He died in 1902, aged 81. His only son, William Anthony Daglish (1854-1923), worked in the business - and I believe that William Anthony's sons may also have carried on in the business. I do not know if any Daglishes were involved in running the business at the time that the October 1958 catalogue was published.

The catalogue has 52 pages of listings and makes interesting reading. In among the lists are some little "words of wisdom", such as "Silence is one of the great arts of conversation".



Looking at some old Trade Directories*, in 1890 the business was still at 125 Pilgrim Street; in 1898 the address is 37 High Bridge, and in 1910 at 5 Elswick Court, an address it appears to have occupied for many years. The 1958 catalogue shows the address of the Head Office is shown as "YanD House", 961-973 Scotswood Road - and there is an address of an office in Belfast. I do not know what happened to the business after this date.

Any information about this long established business, and the involvement of this particular Daglish family, would be much appreciated.

* Local Trade Directories can be found in libraries - and there is a useful online resource Historical Directories, a project run by the University of Leicester.

Duncan & Daglish - Newcastle brewers

Duncan & Daglish Limited was a company in Newcastle upon Tyne involved in brewing, pubs and hotels and wine and spirit merchants. The company was formed in 1899 by John Duncan and Jacob Daglish, taking over an existing business J. Duncan & Company which had also been formed by Duncan and Daglish and which was involved in the same business.

The new company acquired the Westgate Hill Brewery and had 22 licensed premises, of which 15 were well established premises in Newcastle - others were in Gateshead, South Shields, Middlesbrough and Bishop Auckland. Additional houses were acquired in 1900 from local wine merchant D.A. Williamson & Co.

Pictured is the Black Bull Hotel in Wallsend; this shows "Duncan and Daglish" above the door and windows (although it is hard to see it here due to the small size of the picture).


The company continued to expand and in 1907 Bass, the brewer from Burton, acquired a substantial shareholding. By the Second World War Bass owned a majority shareholding and the company became a subsidiary of Bass - although the name of Duncan and Daglish continued to be used until 1967.

Jacob Daglish was born in 1852, the son of William Daglish, who in the 1861 census was a maltsman in Tynemouth. Jacob followed in his father's footsteps serving an apprenticeship as a maltster at Carr's Low Lights Brewery in North Shields before becoming North of England agent for Aitken & Co. of Falkirk. He also had interests in steamship and colliery companies and became mayor of Tynemouth in 1900.

There is a statue of Queen Victoria in Tynemouth which reads:

"Erected by public subscription to the memory of our late beloved Queen Victoria by the inhabitants of the Borough of Tynemouth during the Mayoralty of Alderman Daglish J.P. 1901-02 and unveiled by the Mayoress October 25th 1902". Jacob had three sons and two daughters and died in July 1904.


Information about Duncan and Daglish from the book Brewers and Bottlers, Newcastle upon Tyne by Brian Bennison, 1995

Update:


I recently received this photo of the grave of Jacob's parents William Daglish and Isabella (nee Coulson), in Preston Cemetery, North Shields. This shows William's death on 25 July 1865, aged 46, and Isabella's death on 18 Jun 1879, aged 62.
This was taken by Cindy Nunn and her husband Colin Nunn, to whom I am very grateful.