Freemasons Hall, Ingham St Con't - South Shields Freemasons

Freemasons' Hall, Ingham Street

(Continued)

The Craft continued to flourish in the town and on 17th December 1891 a new Lodge, Hedworth No. 2418 was consecrated at Ingham Street where it continued to meet until 1925 when it moved to its own newly built Hall in Dean Road.

The first decade of the new century saw two new Lodges consecrated at Ingham Street:- The Lord Barnard Lodge No. 2935 consecrated on 16th October 1902 and The John Readhead Lodge No. 3217 consecrated on 1st June 1907. The Lord Barnard Lodge remained at Ingham Street until 1904 when it moved to its own premises at Whitehead Street, Tyne Dock. The John Readhead Lodge moved to Whitehead Street immediately after the Consecration.

The last Lodge to be consecrated at Ingham Street was the Caer Urfa Lodge No. 4345 on 23rd November 1921 and is still working there. Wrekendike Lodge No. 6401 was consecrated at the Hedworth Hall on 5th February 1947 but met at Ingham Street from March 1947 to May 1990 after which it transferred to the Hedworth Hall.

The closure of the Hedworth Hall in 2007 saw the transfer of all the Masonic organisations residing there to the Ingham Street Hall.

Situated adjacent to the Town Centre it has been threatened on a number of occasions by development schemes of the Local Authority. For a variety of reasons (usually financial) these came to nothing until the early 1980's when the adjacent school site was cleared and redeveloped as a supermarket. Happily, the Hall was not affected and has been progressively refurbished and developed over the last 12 years and continues as a very active centre of all South Shields Freemasonry at the ripe old age of 126 years. . It now stands in splendid isolation and we have the use of the store's very large car-park.