The Office 1912 – Working at Freemasons’ Hall

The members of Lathom Lodge No 2229 and their guests who attended the meeting held at Ridgmont House (Horwich Masonic Hall), were treated to a very informative talk given by Diane Clements, Director of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry who gave a talk entitled ‘The Office 1912 – Working at Freemasons’ Hall’.

John Moore welcomes Diane Clements to Lathom Lodge.

The lodge was opened in due form by the WM, John Moore. The minutes were confirmed and the lodge officers that were not present at the installation meeting were invested with their collars. John then proclaimed Arend Van Duyvenbode as the Master elect. The treasurer and tyler were also elected and the lodge was closed.

The brethren were then asked to stand to receive Diane Clements who was introduced to John by the lodge DC Kevin Poynton.

Diane thanked John and all the brethren for their warm reception. She then started her talk with details of the visit to Liverpool 125 years ago by the then Grand secretary Colonel Henry Shadwell Clerke who officiated at the consecration of Lathom Lodge which was held at the Adelphi Hotel.

Diane said there were approximately 50 new lodges consecrated in 1887 and although the Grand Secretary would not have personally officiated at all the ceremonies both he and his staff were certainly kept busy, dealing with all the paperwork and ensuring that everything went smoothly.

Diane then spoke about the number of staff, their working conditions and what it was like working at Freemasons Hall 100 years ago. The hall was built in the 1860s and was purpose built to include office accommodation, a library and a coffee room for members and a lodge room. The clerk’s room had a long window on one side that overlooked an internal courtyard and was located next to the Grand Secretary’s room.

Light was provided by gas lamps but by 1889 electric light had been installed. Heating was by way of coal fires. As much of the clerk’s time was taken up with writing ledgers, light was quite important and in 1895 a system of light reflectors for the office window were installed. By this time the number of clerk’s had increased and there were considerably more clerk’s working in the same space, overcrowding was a common problem at that time and clerks were vulnerable to consumption or TB bought on by working in overcrowded offices as Factory and workplace legislation did not apply to offices at this time..

Diane said that records showed that some of the longest serving clerk’s at Freemasons Hall had become seriously ill and a doctor was called to examine them. Dr Bond was paid six guineas to examine the health of three clerk’s, although no record of further reports of illness in the clerk’s office were recorded, it was recorded that two of the clerks retired shortly afterwards.  

During her talk Diane also gave details of the number of membership certificates issued in 1842 (1,409) by 1865 the number was 6,297 and by 1910 in had increased to 11,786. In comparison in 2010 just over 7,000 certificates were issued (excluding those issued by district grand lodges). 

Other interesting facts were also covered during the talk, such as the fees paid by lodges (In 1911 the fee for registering an initiate was 17 shillings or 85p today!), salaries of clerks and Grand Secretaries (Sir Edward Letchworth, Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England 1892-1917 was paid £1,500 or £113,000 today, a senior clerk was paid £250 per annum or £20,000 today and a clerk £105 per annum or £8,000 today) which were hotly debated in grand lodge and recorded in the quarterly communications, the purchase equipment including a typewriter in 1901 costing £23 , just under £2,000 today!.

Pictured from left to right, are: Colin Penty Wright, Roy Skidmore, Diane Clements, John Moore, Ian Gee and Kevin Poynton.

Diane spoke about many other areas of work carried out by the staff of United Grand Lodge including the relaxing of the rules that required Clerks to be Master Masons and the introduction of women who were required to replace the men who were called up to serve in the First World War.

Diane concluded by giving an overview of the services, guided tours, books and range of Masonic gifts available in the shop in Freemasons Hall.  

John then thanked Diane for taking the time to attend the meeting and for her interesting talk, to which the brethren gave acclamation.

The brethren then retired from the lodge room to enjoy an excellent meal at the festive board.

The next meeting of the lodge is the  installation meeting which will be held at Litherland Masonic Hall on 30 April. There is expected to be a veritable galaxy of the Provinces senior officers present, as among those in the lodge, are: the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, four Assistant Provincial Grand Master‘s, a Past Provincial Grand Master, two Past Assistant Provincial Grand Master’s along with many other members of the lodge who are mostly Grand and Provincial Grand officers along with visiting Grand and Provincial Grand officers.

Brethren who would like to visit the lodge should contact Colin Shannon the lodge secretary email hidden; JavaScript is required.

The brethren of Lathom Lodge, visitors and Diane pictured in the lodge room after her talk.