Braintree Museum is excited to be working with the Lodge of Saint Mary of Essex Freemasonry to celebrate their 150th anniversary. A new exhibition will be open from Saturday 10th September until Saturday 2nd October 2021.

An exhibition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of The Lodge of Saint Mary within Essex Freemasonry. A display of artefacts, documents and images showing the contribution made by many of the 660 members of The Lodge of Saint Mary within the community of Braintree and Bocking. The Lodge was founded at the White Hart public house on 13th October 1870 and continues to meet today at Howard Hall, Bocking End.

Whilst claimed by some to go back to Noah in the Old Testament, Freemasonry in its modern form can reliably be dated back to the publication of its Book of Constitutions in 1723. In the 1700s local Freemasons’ lodges met in the Horn Hotel along Braintree High Street, The Bull public house on Church Street and at the White Hart public house at Bocking End; the latter being the main base until 1897 when a Masonic Hall was built in New Street. In 1934, a new meeting place was constructed with the legacy from John Burgess Howard. Named Howard Hall, it is a distinctive art deco style building along Bocking End.

Membership of Freemasonry attracted royalty, aristocracy, landowners, business and professional people and self-employed tradesmen. Thus, many of a town’s acknowledged ‘movers and shakers’ were Freemasons, but they were hidden in plain sight. Until the end of the 1800s, the full proceedings, of Essex masonic lodges, including the names of all in attendance, were published in the Essex newspaper, The County Standard.

This exhibition curated in collaboration with the Lodge of Saint Mary and Braintree Museum.

From left to right: Nicholas Franklin, Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Essex Freemasonry; Cllr Sue Wilson, Chairman for Braintree District Council; Susan Snell, Archivist, Freemason Hall , London; Andrew Mcleod, Master of Lodge of St Mary.