Our history

Moving to Chester Road

Back in 2008, The Briars Hotel, Kidderminster, that had been our home of more than 40 years, was forced to close. This left Kidderminster Freemasonry potentially homeless. A search for premises to meet our requirements was made and resulted in us having a temporary home at the then named Ramada Hotel, Bewdley.

Freemasonry in Kidderminster has been around since the very early nineteenth century, so we were obviously concerned about our future. The search continued to find a suitable meeting venue. Chester Road Sports and Social Club was seen as a possibility. The result of many discussions over the following few years was that we were able to fund and build Freemasons’ Hall Kidderminster.

The building of our new Centre started on Wednesday 21st September 2011, project managed by W.Bro Mike Langdon of Old Carolian Lodge No. 7599. Mike came out of retirement to manage this project and with the assistance of W.Bro Mick Insull, also of Old Carolian Lodge and W.Bro Martin Lawrence of The Lodge of Hope and Charity No. 377, all of whom have daily given their services, skills and enthusiasm, totally free of charge. It would be wrong to name all those who have helped with the great success of this project, suffice it to say that those who have given time, materials or contributed in any way whatsoever know who you are and we are eternally grateful.

Why did we feel the need to enter into such a major project? A project that has taken over the lives of the committee, the builders and those who have managed the fund raising. The answer is simple – Freemasonry has been around for centuries and has raised vast sums of money for masonic and non-masonic charities. Membership of the fraternity itself is something to be proud of and it teaches valuable lessons to those involved. The sheer longevity of the association is proof that Freemasonry is worth preserving!