[2] He inherited a family business, founded in 1790 by his grandfather Richard Timmins, and based in Hurst Street, as a manufacturer of steel "toys" (i.e. small items such as hinges, buckles and hooks).

[3] His true passion, however, was literature; and towards the end of his life he depended for his income as much on his literary output as on his business.

[4] In about 1858, Timmins, the nonconformist preacher George Dawson, J. T. Bunce, J. H. Chamberlain, William Harris, and others in their circle, began to meet for literary and cultural discussions.

H. R. G. Whates calls Our Shakespeare Club "the intellectual centre of the community, [and] the nineteenth century equivalent of the famous Lunar Society".

[7] Timmins died on 12 November 1902, aged 76, and was buried in Key Hill Cemetery, Hockley, Birmingham.