Freemasonry in Weston-super-Mare
In the late 1800s Freemasonry only existed in the big cities and remained relatively unknown to the mass population. Around this time however there was a revolution taking place in mass transport and the railway was starting to connect the cities to the towns. With the need to move goods around the towns and villages there was also ongoing improvement of the roads. Knowledge of Masonry was also on the move. It must me acknowledged that at this time it was the wealthy, professionals and upper classes that were members of this organisation but in some ways we should be glad of this because it was their affluence that encouraged them to seek residences away from the cities. Having a few hours of horse riding or a bumpy carriage ride to take part in your Masonry must have been an encouragement to seek for alternative venues for their Lodges. Masonry in our closest city, Bristol, is very well documented and there are many good references written. It owes its roots to the fact that it was a major sea port and home of the slave trade and there were many affluent people in the business community.
From the records in Bristol there are certainly mentions of a Lodges being held in rooms above the inns in Backwell and Nailsea but little mention of Weston-super-Mare. However we do know that seven Bristol Freemasons from the Beaufort Lodge No. 103 petitioned Grand Lodge to form a Lodge at Congresbury in 1867. The Lodge was consecrated to meet at the Ship and Castle Inn, in the parish of Congresbury and known as ‘The Lodge of Agriculture’. A Warrant was duly issued by Grand Lodge on November 1st, 1867, and the number of the Lodge was to be 1199. The Ship and Castle public house can still be found in Congresbury.
Picture - Ship & Castle Pub Congresbury - Credit Toby Hammond
The opening of a Masonic Lodge so close to Weston-super-Mare must have been an inspiration to the few Freemasons living in the town and an encouragement to them to take whatever steps were necessary to facilitate the formation of a Lodge. This can be seen in the records of the Lodge of Agriculture as a month or so after the consecration of the Lodge a Petition, sponsored by them, was sent to Grand Lodge for a Masonic Lodge to be formed which would meet at the ‘Royal Assembly Rooms’, Weston-super-Mare, and to be known as ‘The St Kew Lodge’. One of the seven petitioners was Francis George Irwin who was to be the first Worshipful Master of the new Lodge. Accordingly the first Lodge in Weston-super-Mare, The St. Kew Lodge 1222 was consecrated on Tuesday, July 7th, 1868.
In 1868 Weston-super-Mare was a town with a population of 10,000 and governed by a Board of eighteen Commissioners who met in a small Town Hall which was situated at the back of the Plough Hotel in High Street. At this time St Kew Lodge met in the “Assembly Rooms” which had been built in 1855 by an entrepreneur of the town at that time. The location for these rooms was at the corner of High Street and West Street and this building contained a main hall, capable of seating 600 persons, there the townsfolk were able to enjoy shows provided by travelling theatre companies and attend social gatherings, political meetings and other functions of varying importance – possibly what is now the “Woolworths” store.
A Postcard of Weston High Street which was posted in July 1911 which dates the picture around that time. This picture is looking north - The shop in the centre of the picture is now Pound-Land
The Bristol and Exeter Railway Company had brought the railway near the town in 1841, but opposition on the part of the Lord of the Manor had prevented the line running through Weston-super-Mare so a short branch line was laid from the main line into the town along which the rail carriages for Weston were drawn by horses. The proximity of the railway brought people into the town to take up residence and the population began to increase.
A suite of rooms in the York Hotel had become the home of the St Kew Lodge. They then paid for another floor to be added to the hotel specifically for their use – we can only assume the owner was a Mason. This new suite was called the ‘Carnarvon Hall’. The York Hotel, latterly the Queen's Hotel, was at the corner of Regent Street and High Street South looking onto what is known as ‘big lamp corner’. The hotel was demolished during the 1970s and made into a shop which, at the time of this book is the Superdrug retailer. The exterior of the hall included Masonic emblems which must have been clearly on show to the passing public. The ‘Carnarvon Hall’ was so named after the Earl of Carnarvon who was, at that time, the Provincial Grand Master. Eventually the hotel was unable to cope with the numbers attending the Lodge meetings so they moved back to the Old Town Hall in Plough Court. Unfortunately these rooms became unsafe and the meetings transferred back to the Carnarvon Hall although large meetings where held in the Assembly Rooms.
It became clear to the brethren that they needed their own building and an Emergency Meeting of the St. Kew Lodge was held on February 23rd, 1880, when plans were discussed for the building of a Masonic Hall with ante-rooms and dining room on one floor with shops and dwelling house for a Tyler underneath, at an estimated cost of £1600 without the cost of the land. "The plans were much admired" and the brethren voted in favour of a Committee being appointed to go into the matter which met and resolved that “a Company be formed, to be known as the Weston-super-Mare Masonic Hall Company, Ltd.”. The site selected for the building was a plot with frontages to the Boulevard and Longton Grove Road. This building continued in use until 1908. The wooden tower atop was removed in the 1970s because it became dangerous. There was a stone carving of St. Kew placed above the entrance which is still visible today.
Although the two Lodges were occupying an imposing building specially built for Masonic purposes, some of the brethren considered it necessary to secure a larger building. The building was to comprise a Temple, a spacious banqueting hall, robing, tyler's and committee rooms, and to be situated behind the Victoria Hall in the Boulevard. The first reference in the minutes to this proposal is an October 1st, 1907, when the Treasurer (Worshipful Brother E. E. Baker) reported that £2,000 would be required to' meet the cost of a new building and that this would be raised by the issue of £5 debenture shares bearing 4% interest. It is obvious that the £2,000 was required in addition to the amount obtained by the sale of the Longton Grove Boulevard building which seems to have realised about £4,000. The purchasers of the building were the Weston-super-Mare and District Constitutional Club, Ltd. The local paper recorded "The new Masonic Temple will not loom conspicuously in the public eye for two reasons, the first being that it occupies a position at the rear of the Victoria Hall, while the second lies in the fact that the Masonic brethren decided that externally the premises should be of a plain and unostentatious character. Internally, however, the Temple is thoroughly in accord with the lofty purposes which gave it being.