Freemasonry in Chesterfield 1762-2002

Freemasonry has been practiced in Chesterfield since 1762, though with quite long gaps in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The first known record of a Chesterfield Lodge is of Lodge No. 106 (it didn't have a name) constituted at the Three Cranes Inn on 27th December 1762. The Three Cranes was on Low Pavement, somewhere between the present Barnsley Building Society premises and MacDonald's. The Lodge appears to have had a very short life, although the names of nine of its members are known.

The second Lodge in Chesterfield was called the Scarsdale Lodge, and was initially numbered 519. It took its title from the Hundred of Scarsdale - the old parliamentary constituency containing Chesterfield and much of Northeast Derbyshire. Its warrant was dated 5th March 1793 and the first meeting was held on 23rd May 1793.

The Lodge has been said to have emanated from Sheffield, but this is only a technicality, as the founders had been made masons in Sheffield. They were all prominent citizens of Chesterfield or the surrounding district.

The Lodge originally met at the Angel Inn, which was on the top of the Market Place on a site now occupied partly by the Post Office and partly by Hudson's music shop. On 6th July 1808 the Lodge resolved to move to the Falcon at the top of South Street; the building is still there and is occupied by the Barnsley Building Society. Then, on 30th June 1817, it moved back to the Angel.

The records of the old Scarsdale Lodge are still in existence, although sometimes not as complete as one could wish, and the more important items of its property are still in use. From the records, we learn that membership was never high, usually about 12 to 15, but rising almost to 30 by 1822, then falling rapidly through the 1820's.

The last meeting of the Lodge was on 2nd February 1830 at the Angel. The members then walked in procession to the site of the new church at Brampton Moor (St Thomas's) where the Duke of Devonshire laid the foundation stone. The members then returned to the Angel, where the Lodge was closed - for good. Grand Lodge erased it in 1838.

During the Napoleonic Wars, French Officers who were prisoners of war were billeted in Chesterfield. They formed two Lodges during the years 1809-12; Loge de l'Espérance and Loge de St Jerôme et l'Espérance. Scarsdale members made 8 visits to Loge de St Jerôme et I'Espérance, while the Scarsdale minutes record that on 5th March 1810, "Hy. Vinclair and R. de la Croix, two foreigners, visited this night." Both were prominent French masons.

The French prisoners had little money and were not allowed to go more than a mile from Chesterfield, but they found a sympathiser in Sir Windsor Hunloke, Master of Scarsdale in 1800 and a Roman Catholic, who is said to have moved the milestone further along Derby road so that the Frenchmen could visit him at Wingerworth Hall!

After the old Scarsdale Lodge ceased to meet, freemasonry in Chesterfield was in abeyance, and remained so until a new Lodge, also called Scarsdale, was consecrated at the Star Inn at the bottom of Glumangate on 10th September 1856. A banquet was afterwards held at the Municipal Hall, later to become the Court House, on New Beetwell Street. It was extensively reported in both the Derbyshire Times and the Derbyshire Courier, the two accounts being almost identical. They can be consulted (on microfilm) in the Public Library. In 1861, the Lodge moved to the Angel next door, and continued to meet there for the next 16 years.

From 1866 onwards, the Lodge was, intermittently, having trouble with the landlord of the Angel, Richard Wilkinson, who seems to have wanted to use the Lodge room for other purposes. The members realised that eventually they would have to find alternative accommodation, which they did in a rather ingenious way.

A group of members, together with a number of non-masons, formed the East Derbyshire Club, with premises to be built in Saltergate. Before even a single brick had been laid, the Club had agreed to lease the top floor to the Lodge. .

The first meeting in the new premises was on 11th September 1877, while the East Derbyshire Club did not open until 15th October. The Lodge has, of course, met there ever since.

In 1891 a second Lodge, called Hardwick, was formed in Chesterfield by a number of masons residing in Chesterfield away from their own Lodges. The new Lodge had its first meeting at the Star, and subsequent meetings at the Angel, Richard Wilkinson having died by this time. In due course, terms were agreed whereby Hardwick could meet at the Masonic Hall, which they continue to this day.

Yet another Lodge, to be known as Cavendish (the Dukes of Devonshire were active freemasons through the 19th and much of the 20th centuries) was formed in 1904. It met at the Whittington and Sheepbridge Institute for a few years, but, like Hardwick, eventually moved to Chesterfield Masonic Hall.

A fourth Lodge, Cestrefeld, was formed in 1918, and has always met at the Masonic Hall.

In 1926 the four Chesterfield Lodges got together and formed the Chesterfield Masonic Hall Ltd, which bought the building from the East Derbyshire Club. The Club thereupon ceased to exist.

After the second World War there was an upsurge in interest in freemasonry, and the possibility of a new Lodge was mooted to cater for this. The new Lodge was a long time coming, but eventually, in 1989, Lutudarum Lodge was formed, Lutudarum being, it is believed, the name by which the Romans knew Chesterfield.

 

All the Lodges considered so far are Craft Lodges - what a non-mason might think of as mainstream masonry - and every mason must belong to a Craft Lodge, at least for a time. There are, however, additional Masonic orders open to members of Craft Lodges; they are optional, but many masons join and enjoy them.

The oldest of these additional orders is the Royal Arch Chapter, often abbreviated to just Chapter. The first Chapter to be held in Chesterfield was formed in 1823 and was called Scarsdale Chapter. (Reports of an earlier Chapter were due to the misinterpretation of a document.) This was not a good time to be starting new Lodges or Chapters because, as we have seen, freemasonry was in decline in the 1820's, so the first Scarsdale Chapter had a very short life and ceased to meet in 1826.

As the new Scarsdale Lodge eventually arose from the ashes of the old one, so it was with the Chapter, and a new Scarsdale Chapter was formed in 1878 and continues to meet here. Its formation was delayed until the new (present) building was available. Again pressure of numbers eventually led to the formations of another Chapter, Lutudarum, in 1992.

Another important and old Masonic order is called Mark Masonry. The first Mark Lodge in Chesterfield (called Scarsdale) was formed in 1899, and the second, called Chesterfield Mark Lodge, in 1976. A Mark Lodge may have a Lodge of another order, Ark Mariners, attached to it (but meeting separately) and Scarsdale Ark Mariners Lodge was formed in 1921.

Other Masonic orders meeting in Chesterfield are Rose Croix, Knights Templar, Red Cross of Constantine, and Secret Monitor, none of them bearing the name of Scarsdale.