The Dampiet Street Unitarian Chapel represents the oldest dissenting congregation in Bridgwater. The congregation who originally used this building were defined as puritans or Presbyterians, although are now associated with the Unitarian movement. Unitarians believe in just one God, as opposed to the Trinity of three gods in one and that Jesus, although in a sense the son of God, was a prophet, and not a god himself. Reverend John Norman of St Mary’s was ejected in 1662 for his radical views and with a group of followers founded this congregation. They initially met in a converted barn on this site. They were attacked in 1663 and the contents of the chapel were burned on the Cornhill. This chapel was built in 1688, enlarged in 1788 and restored in 1988. There were once railing immediately in front of the chapel and an elaborate gate with lamp. Inside a tiled floor, box pews, elegant Columns, a small gallery and a large but simple pinky-red coloured window give an unmatched atmosphere to the building. There are few buildings in Bridgwater that surpass the interior of the chapel for its calming beauty.
The famous romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave sermons in the Unitarian Chapel in 1797, 1798. He was living in Nether Stowey at the time in what was the most productive time of his life, when he created his masterpieces of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Kahn.
