Redruth Masonic Hall, Redruth, Cornwall

Summary

Masonic hall, 1876-1878, by James Hicks.

Description

Masonic hall, 1876-1878, by James Hicks.

MATERIALS: dressed and coursed local elvan stone with Bath-stone dressings to the principal elevation; rubble elvan stone and granite quoins to the other elevations; slate pitched roofs.

PLAN: rectangular in plan, with an offset entrance on the east elevation.

EXTERIOR: the masonic hall is designed in an eclectic style over two storeys and a basement (or lower-ground floor). The principal front (east) comprises a gabled elevation with three windows each on the ground and first floor. The ground-floor windows are basket-headed with plate tracery decorated with roundels, including a square and compasses in the centre; the heads of the windows are defined by a continuous hood mould. The Gothic arches of the first-floor windows spring from pilasters with triglyphs and stiff-leaf capitals, with further flat pilasters to the corners. To the bottom of the first-floor window are five sculpted panels – the left-hand panel contains the arms of the United Grand Lodge of England above the motto AUDI / VIDE / TACE; the central panels depict the three degrees of Masonry (entered apprentice, fellowcraft and master mason) with reference to levels of building crafts; and the right-hand panel contains a fleur-de-lys as the Prince of Wales was Grand Master when the building was opened. The window openings are blocked. The gable is topped with flat copings and a stone ball-finial. On the right-hand side of the building’s plinth is a foundation stone inscribed THIS STONE WAS LAID BY / BRO J.F. PENROSE P.M. / JAN 10 1876.

To the right is a slightly lower entrance elevation with a central, panelled, timber double-door flanked by inset columns with stiff-leaf capitals. Above the door are five cusped lancets and the whole doorway is topped with an ogee arch topped with a carved figure of a Druid. This projects slightly from a panelled first floor with a further six cusped lancets with a line of ball decoration to their transoms. The south elevation is blind except for a single doorway to the ground floor which has a granite lintel and red-brick dressings. The north elevation is partially obscured by the neighbouring building but again is blind except for a three-light lancet window within the gable end. The west elevation has three window and one door openings at the lower-ground floor (all blocked); three openings to the ground floor, and two to the first floor – those to the left are slightly smaller. All have granite lintels and quoin surrounds and are fitted with uPVC windows.

INTERIOR: from the entrance, there is a small lobby with an encaustic-tile floor and moulded cornices and a plain ceiling rose. To the south is a WC, and to the west are further half-glazed double doors to the staircase hallway. Both sets of entrance doors retain their historic door furniture. Two doors with flat architraves on the south side of the hallway lead to a dining room. It is three bays in length, with the eastern bay slightly raised (reflecting the dais above), and the bays are defined by chamfered ceiling beams supported by large bobbin-turned timber brackets springing from floriated corbels. The ceiling has a decorated, pierced cornice; the floor is partly boarded; and there is a mid-C20 timber dado to the walls between a tall skirting and moulded dado rail, with a moulded picture rail above. To the west of the dining room, next to a mid-C20 corner bar, steps lead to a corridor with two spaces to the west housing a modern kitchen and the lodge’s museum. A further doorway leads back out into the staircase hall. Below the stairs, a door leads to the lower-ground floor where there are two spaces, formerly the Tyler’s flat.

The principal staircase has a bobbin balustrade with a decorated newel post at the ground floor. At the head of the stairs, a six-panelled door with moulded architrave leads to the committee room which has a fireplace on the south side with a simple timber surround. To the east, an identical door leads to the main lodge room. The space is double-height and four bays long, with a raised dais to the east. The tripartite arched ceiling, decorated with the constellation, is defined north to south by pierced ribs decorated with Tudor-flower motifs and fretwork; horizontally along the spring course of the main ceiling arch by fluted plasterwork; and the cornice has an egg-and-dart moulding. At the centre of the room is a diamond-set tiled chequerboard floor, on the west side of which are two pillars: one of the Ionic order for the Master denoting wisdom and with its globe representing the celestial world, and one Corinthian for the Junior Warden denoting beauty and its globe representing the earthly world. The Doric order, for the Senior Warden and denoting strength, is represented on the west wall, framing the Senior Warden’s chair with fluted pilasters and a frieze and segmental arch with mutules. On the east wall, above the Master’s chair, is a floating pediment. To the north of the dais is a recess containing a segmental pointed arch springing from floriated corbels, within which are timber four-panel double-doors below blocked overlights with segmental heads and decoratively carved spandrels. Within the arch-head is a Star of David. The doors lead to the current robing room which has C20 storage cupboards for each of the lodges.

History

The first masonic lodge in Redruth was founded in 1754 (Number 176), three years after the first in the province at Falmouth. At Redruth there were initially around 20 members, all under the age of 39; it held the name Druid’s Lodge. In 1773 the lodge added ‘of Love and Liberality’ to its name becoming Lodge Number 859, and by 1814 numbers had risen to 58. The lodge operated until 1825 under John Knight, and after becoming dormant for a number of years was revived in 1851 with meetings held at the London Inn. That year, meetings were moved to premises on Clinton Passage, and in 1863 the lodge became Number 589 as it remains today.

Brother Thomas Mills was the first to seek out a permanent home for the lodge, and in 1874 a freehold site on Green Lane opposite Fords Row was purchased. On 10 January 1876, the brethren in masonic regalia paraded to Green Lane headed by the Redruth Volunteer Corps band and the Tyler with a drawn sword. The foundation stone was laid by W Brother John Penrose with a silver presentation trowel. The plans for the building by James Hicks, the chosen architect, were formally approved by Brother Penrose at the event.

James Hicks (1846-1896) was born in Redruth and lived in the town for almost his entire life. By the age of 25 Hicks had set up his own practice; an early commission was the remodelling of Tolvean on West End, Redruth for Alfred Lanyon, a prominent Redruthian who had amassed a fortune through investment in commercial, industrial and private buildings. Hicks’ relationship with businessmen and industrialists continued during his career, and for ten years he was the local agent of Lord Clinton. The bulk of Hicks’ work comprised public buildings including chapels and schools throughout Cornwall, but from the mid-1870s he began to have an influence on the building stock and the civil direction of his hometown. Hicks was initiated into the Druid’s Lodge of Love and Liberality on 12 January 1874.

Hicks’ design for the masonic hall was illustrated in ‘The Architect’ in September 1876, where it was noted that it was the second-largest lodge in the province and that the new hall was amongst the largest and most important in the county. The new building contained a banqueting hall, a retiring room, and residence for the Tyler on the ground floor; with the lodge room (40 by 25 feet and 21 feet high), a robing room and candidates’ room on the first floor. The building was to be constructed of local elvan stone with Bath-stone dressings, prepared at Box under Hicks’ instructions. The carving was done by Bernard Wilder in the workshop of Harry Hems of Exeter; Hicks apparently refused to pay Wilder for the carvings, claiming that they were improperly done, but no detailed evidence of the circumstances has been found. The contractors were Gray & Tamblyn of Redruth, and the final cost of the building was £1,500, raised by a Limited Liability Company in 750 shares of £2. The hall was completed in 1878 and dedicated that August by the Provincial Grand Master, the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe.

Newspaper reports from the opening note that there was an organ chamber with a Gothic arch within the lodge room, and there was also a large ante room, robing room and bedroom; these uses have changed over time. The eastern window openings were glazed on completion of the building, but never with leaded glass as Hicks’ drawing suggests. At some point, and apparently not long after opening, the windows on the east side were blocked in; as meetings occur at night and the lodge room is lit in a specific manner, it must have been decided that they were not required. The two pillars in the lodge room were presented in 1888 by Edwin Milford Cock (later Milford Milford), a local wine merchant who was Worshipful Master from 1874 to 1888, initiated Hicks, was Provincial Senior Warden, and donated an organ to the lodge in 1891. The organ was removed in 1965 and, after being discovered in a house at Tehidy, was brought back to the lodge where it remains in the stair hallway.

In 1919 a contractor was engaged by the lodge building committee for repairs. The lodge attended the laying of the foundation stone for the extension to the Church of St Andrew in Redruth by Commander Sir Edward Nicholl on 22 April 1937; a pillar in the north-east corner of the church was donated by the lodge and is carved with masonic symbols. A second lodge in Redruth – St Euny, Number 6025 – was consecrated in May 1945, and a joint management committee was formed in 1972. A daughter lodge, Trevithick, was founded in 1989 and also met at the Green Lane masonic hall.

Reasons for Listing

The masonic hall in Redruth, Cornwall is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a proficient example of the work of one of Cornwall’s principal C19 architects, James Hicks;
* the accomplished eclectic architectural style of the building together with its quality stone-carving by Harry Hems’ workshop displaying the symbology of Freemasonry, create a handsome street presence;
* for the high survival of the interior, including the plan and layout of the necessary rooms, good joinery, and the lodge room with its fittings;
* with the early-C19 houses opposite, which are listed at Grade II.

Historic interest:

* as a significant component in the late-C19 civic and institutional building boom in Redruth at a time of national industrial decline, many buildings for which were designed by Hicks;
* within the history of Freemasonry, and the increasing visibility and respectability of Freemasons in the Provinces.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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British Listed Buildings

History in Structure

Redruth Masonic Hall

A Grade II Listed Building in Redruth, Cornwall

Coordinates

Summary

Description

History

Reasons for Listing

External Links

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