What we are losing, ........ the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane and a lesson in how history is not always what it appears

The Maonic Hall Edge Lane today, © Adge Lane

The building is empty, neglected and pretty much vandalised and I doubt it will survive much longer.  

It is the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, much photographed, much written about but I suspect little understood.

And it rather points to a simple observation that history is not always the way it appears.

Sometimes there are crossover stories which muddy the picture of the past where two different events get merged and the truth becomes distorted.

And this is one of those distortions.  When you read about the scandal of the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane most writers fall back on the story of how it was converted from two semi detached Victorian properties and retell the history of the Masons here in Chorlton from the 1870s.

The Masonic Hall, High Lane, 1959, A.E. Landers

The Chorlton Masonic Lodge No 1387 was formed in 1872 with 20 members and for a while met in the village school room on the green, before moving to a house on High Lane opposite Acres Road.

Five years later they formed the Masonic Hall Company “for the purpose of erecting a building for Masonic purposes, club meetings, balls, soirees, concerts etc.”*

The foundation stone of the new building was laid by Dr Rains on July 27th 1878 on a site on High Lane and the building was opened on March 15th of the following year.

It was “a handsome structure of brick with stone facings in the gothic style of architecture erected at a cost of £2,300....The Directors formed a billiard club in connection with the hall, occupying the large hall on the ground floor.  

This club was opened on March 15th 1879, the subscription varying from half a guinea to one guinea. The capacity of the Billiard players is above the average and there are some steady players at a ‘rubber’.  

The Masonic Hall High Lane and Bowling Green, 1907

Much interest is shown in the competition for prizes and in measuring strength with other clubs of a similar character in the neighbourhood.”

Equally impressive would have been its bowling green which extended from the rear of the club down to what had been Row Acre and was to become the Rec.

Now I rather think that it is this building with its history dating back to 1879 which is confused with the other hall on Edge Lane.

More so because the Company was wound up in 1956 and the building, grounds and assets sold to the Chorlton Irish Association two years later, who opened their own social club in the building in 1960.

Westbrook and Gildabrook to the right of Waltham House, 1907

Which just left  that other hall just a little way down High Lane on Edge Lane.

It was converted from two semi detached properties which date from the late Victorian period.

These were Gildabrook which was number 10 and Westbrook which was number 12.

The Masonic Hall, Edge Lane, A.E. Landers, 1959

Now I can’t be sure but the conversion was later than 1911 when the two were still private residences and more likely sometime after the Great War.

What is certain is that by 1935 the site had become the hall.

The two houses  were substantial properties with ten rooms a piece, set back from the road with large gardens to the rear and like so many of our big houses became just too big to maintain.

The rest is still fairly hazy and I will need to trawl the later directories to pinpoint the moment the conversion was put in place, and which Masonic company owned the hall.

It may have been the South Manchester Freemasons who were there at the beginning of the 21st century when the place closed.

The Maonic Hall Edge Lane today, © Adge Lane

Either way it is now in a very sorry state.  It was subject to a planning application in 2012 for conversion into flats with additional properties in the rear garden.***

The plan included the demolition of the two wings which were later additions.

Even then the report highlighted that it “is now in a poor state of repair and projects a poor image for this significant site within the conservation area.”

Sadly since then all work on the property has ceased, the stained glass windows have vanished and the building looks pretty much of an eyesore.

I hope it will not go the way of so many buildings which eventually with no one to save them and open to the elements and the vandals will disappear.

It may not be the historic home of the masons here in Chorlton but is still a place which merits its survival.

The Masonic Hall, Edge Lane, A.E. Landers, 1959

Pictures; the hall on Edge Lane today from the collection of Adge Lane, the Masonic Hall on High Lane by A.E. Landers, 1959 m17902, Edge Lane Hall also by A.E. Landers, 1959, m17785, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, and maps of High Lane and edge Lane from the OS map of 1907

*Ellwood, T.E, Bowling Greens, Chapter 26, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester Gazette, May 15 1886

**Elwood

***Manchester City Council, Planning and Highways Committee, March 15, 2012, Application Number 096371/CC/20/2011/S1