14 C O N T E X T 1 4 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 The early 17th century saw an exodus in the other direction as Protestants sought refuge in Holland. Among them was William Bridge, vicar of St George Colegate and later a co-founder of the beautiful Old Meeting House.This two-storey, red-brick chapel with brick pilasters surmounted by Corinthian capitals and a hipped roof is an elegant, Dutch-inspired creation. The clinker tiles imported from the Netherlands still form the paving in front of the Grade I listed building. To provide protection, it is almost concealed down a narrow path off Colegate. The Meeting House was built in 1693, one of the first following the Act of Toleration, passed by Britain’s only Dutch king, William III. The Act meant that the non-conformists no longer had to meet secretly in private houses, although they remained excluded from public office. A few steps down Colegate is a second fine red-brick chapel, built in 1756, designed by Norwich architect James Ivory and distinguished by its octagonal shape. The chapel was sometimes the place of worship of the prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, and the influential Martineau family. Nearby, in the mid-19th century, the minister of St Mary’s Baptist Church, George Gould, campaigned against political corruption in the city as well as for better housing. Among members of the church congregation were JJ Colman of mustard fame, who instituted good working practices, including hot meals and the first staff nurse in a factory, and George White, of whom it was said that ‘he saw every issue through the window of a Baptist meeting house’.White, whose shoe factory on Colegate was once the largest in the country, also sought to improve the chances of working men. A short distance from his factory he built the plum-brick edifice of the Norwich Technical Institute so that his staff could be trained to use the machines in his factory. He was a hard but fair taskmaster, and his funeral at the Rosary Cemetery, the first non-conformist cemetery in the country, attracted 3,000 people. Although Norwich might seem out of the way, the city’s non-conformists turned their exclusion into an opportunity to do things differently and, by illustration and by campaign, created a better, fairer country. RowennaWood Eclecticism and originality Anyone with initial doubts about the title of this tour was soon enlightened as our guide, David Bussey, ably led us on a fast-paced walk around the city centre. Bussey, co-author of the Norwich Society’s booklet George John Skipper, 1856–1948, took us to 10 of the local architect’s most noteworthy buildings. Referencing the work of Wren, Lutyens, Palladio, Shaw, Peruzzi and Mackintosh en-route, his informative exposition showcased the great variety and depth of Skipper’s work. Often dubbed ‘the Gaudi of Norfolk’, Skipper was born just outside Norwich in East Dereham. He trained in London before setting up his own practice in 1879. Commissions followed in Somerset but it was back in his home county that Skipper’s creative juices really began to flow – originally in Cromer, as the town experienced its post-railway expansion, and switching to Norwich at the turn of the century. During the two-hour tour, delegates witnessed medieval turrets juxtaposed against palazzo facades, Venetian windows set alongside art-nouveau decoration and Queen Anne bow windows co-existing with Nicholas Groves speaks from the pulpit of the 1746 Unitarian Octagon Chapel
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