Very little is known around Bell's Shipyard, and James Bell himself. Census records dictate he may have been a man born around 1783 at Newcastle, and by the 1850s a pauper at Bishopwearmouth in the Sunderland Union Workhouse, perhaps due to his failed ventures.

This seems particular pertinent in this case, as his shipyard on the North Shore only lasted a couple years. Registers dictate Bell constructed four ships on the North Shore of Sunderland between 1830 and 1832. All were were rigged Snow vessels for the coal industry, with two ending up lost on the far north voyage to Canada around Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Little can be said about its location apart from it being on the North Shore. This may translate as the North Sands, which stretched across from Potato Garth to St Peter's. Given the absence of detailed maps to observe, we can only speculate on its exact site.

It is possible this yard ended up in the hands of James Leithead. The Leithead's are a Borders family who operated at multiple sites along the Wear, with the North Sands being the second. They formerly had a site at Low Street, but ended up here then Deptford and Southwick. James constructed around 16 vessels here, all for general cargo merchants along the North Sea coast.