Caroline Colman
Caroline Colman
by John Osborne
As part of our Twenty Stories series marking twenty years of VisitNorwich championing the city we’re exploring the life of Caroline Colman. A member of the iconic, Norwich mustard-making family, her legacy set a standard for workplace welfare worldwide.
Twenty Stories. One City. The City of Stories.
From medieval rebels and mystics to pioneering reformers, artists, entrepreneurs and unsung heroes, these are the people who shaped Norwich over 1000 years- and whose legacy can still be discovered across the city today.
All our stories are told by twenty invited guest authors from across our city’s creative, tourism and cultural community.
Delve into the series with our NEW, FREE, mobile-friendly trail and discover the places linked to these incredible people- from museums and tours to cultural landmarks and green spaces. We kindly invite you to- Step Into The Story.
Stories Published So Far:
Jack Valentine | Emma de Guader | Pablo Fanque | Rumsey Wells | John Crome | Harriet Martineau | Julian of Norwich | Amelia Opie | Margaret Fountaine
CAROLINE COLMAN
1831 – 1895
The person who created wellbeing in the workplace.
Caroline Colman was born at Letheringsett Hall, near Holt, in May 1831 into a famous Norfolk family. Her dad, William Hardy Cozens-Hardy, was a brewer, farmer, landowner and political figure. Her little brother Herbert became one of the most senior judges in Britain and her grandma, Mary Hardy, kept a diary that generations later has allowed historians to have a detailed picture of what Norfolk was like in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Caroline united one prominent Norfolk family with another, the Colmans, when she married Jeremiah James, nephew of Jeremiah, the creator of Colman’s Mustard.
Before their marriage, Jeremiah James wrote to her: ‘I hope we shan’t lead an ideal selfish existence, for I am sure that it won’t be a happy one if we do. Influence, position and wealth are not given for nothing and we must try and use them as we would wish at the last we had done.’
One of the ways of living this unselfish life they had talked about was by taking an interest in the Colman’s employees. When Caroline and Jeremiah James first arrived in 1856, they had around two hundred workers. Ten years later, that had increased to a thousand workers, and at the time of her sudden death in her sixties, there were more than two thousand workers. In 1893 an article in Commerce magazine said the Carrow employees were ‘the most well-cared for mass of operatives in the world.’
Caroline is, in my view, responsible for creating wellbeing in the workplace. She implemented ideas that even now would be thought of as modern and progressive. It was her idea to build a canteen so Colman’s employees could have hot food on their lunch break, making the company one of the first to provide food for its workers. Imagine how good hot stew would have tasted on a cold day in the late 1800s. They provided breakfast, aware that some of their workers were travelling for well over an hour to get to work on their bicycles or by foot. She employed dressmakers to come in and teach women how to sew. She checked in on any single women, making sure they could safely get to the factory and back home again. Once a week, she’d sit down with them, have a cup of tea and air any grievances. She knew how important it was that people check in on each other. She set up the residential Carrow Girls Home, aware of the dangers they faced. People who have worked at Colman’s call it a big happy family, that it could take an hour to walk from one side of the factory floor to the other because there were so many people to say hello to, and this has its roots in the love of Caroline and Jeremiah James.
In 1857, she started a school, just off King Street, for the children of Colman’s employees. By 1870, it had three hundred pupils and this was no everyday school; Caroline’s school prepared those children to grow up as independent, thoughtful, creative young people. They were taught philosophy, art, history, beekeeping, how to make your own clothes, woodwork, ironwork, how to grow your own food, and something called ‘domestic economy,’ which sounds like it should be taught to every person in the world no matter what their age. The knowledge and confidence those children will have had when they were old enough to leave school.
The Colmans made land available for their employees, their love of horticulture giving them the belief all families should be able to grow their own flowers and vegetables. The factory had its own library, refreshment rooms, clubs and social groups. They hosted an annual tea party for their staff and they were the first to introduce the idea of paid holidays for staff. Caroline made sure care packages were sent to the families of those who had died. Her and Jeremiah James set up pension schemes and a company insurance, protecting people against injuries and sickness. In 1878, they employed an on-site nurse, an incredible woman called Phillipa Flowerday, the first industrial nurse in the country. This was years before the NHS even existed. Colman’s were the first business to employ someone like Philippa, who assisted the company’s doctor in the dispensary as well as paying home visits.
Jeremiah James and Caroline brought up a family of philanthropists. Laura, Russell, Ethel, Helen, Alan and Florence. Ethel Colman was the first ever female mayor in the UK.
Caroline’s contribution has gone almost completely unreported when the Colman’s story is told today, but the whole family’s contribution is not widely known. There is no plaque or statue for either Jeremiah, Jeremiah James, Caroline or Ethel. From what I have read and been told, the Colmans were a family full of love. A family who changed Norwich. A family who looked out for others. A family who did what they could to make the world a better place.
Step Into The Story.
A city you don’t just read about – you experience.
Tour Carrow House, once home to the Colman family, with The Shoebox Experiences
Norwich is a city inextricably linked to mustard thanks to the Colman family.
You can see the story of Colman’s Mustard at The Museum of Norwich (adults £7.74, children from £6.57, book in advance for the best prices, twilight ticket £2.50), which explores the social history, its people and its industries, of our fine city. You’ll find the Colmans in the Industrious City display, a gallery packed full of artefacts (including those in mustard-yellow!).
Or head across the city to Carrow House- once the home of the Colman family, which you can tour with The Shoebox Experiences. Their Carrow House and the Forgotten Vaults tour (adults £20, children £8.50), journeys into the legacy of the Colmans beyond the mustard factory.
Author bio: John Osborne writes poems, stories and scripts. His first book Radio Head was broadcast as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. His theatre show Norwich: A Love Story was a sell-out show at Norwich Playhouse in 2024 and in 2026 he was commissioned to be the Writer-in-Residence at Norwich Market.
