The notes prepared in this presentation are published with the permission of P Kay from Heugh Lodge 7773 who first used them to deliver a presentation to the Nevill Lodge of Installed Masters. Our thanks go to Peter for this and his research

The development of masonry in Hartlepool began with the formation three lodges in Hartlepool the other eight are related to them. These three lodges are St Helens, Harbour of Refuge and Stranton.

The diagram shows these lodges and the development of the other Hartlepool Lodges.

The relationship of the Hartlepool lodges to the first three is shown in the Single Line Diagram. This also shows the current role number of each of the eleven lodges and their respective year of consecration. The vertical positions on the sheet are to scale in terms of time.

Masonry in Hartlepool

Although Stockton and Hartlepool are both ancient towns, it may appear surprising that they did not form their first lodges until 1845 and 1846respectively, whereas Gateshead, Sunderland, South Shields, Durham and Darlington had already formed lodges in the previous century. It is however, not surprising when you consider that by the beginning of the19th century the once important port of Hartlepool had declined to a fishing village of 1000 people with 325 in the nearby village of Stranton.

In 1808 the old harbour which had become silted up was planted as a corn field. Darlington was a prosperous town, but there was no bridge over the Tees below Yarm.

Unlike both the Tyne and the Wear, the Tees had not become an important artery of trade. The river was shallow and with its many bends and shifting sandbanks was difficult to navigate. It could be quicker for a sailing ship to sail from the mouth of the Tees to London than for it to sail from the mouth to Stockton.

Then came the development of the railways. Improvements in steam engines that could pump large volumes of water enabled the development of the South East Durham coal pits. A navigable cut was made at Portrack which removed a difficult two and a half mile long horseshoe bend in the River Tees.

The harbour at Hartlepool was improved in 1830, which, with the railway, allowed a quick turn round of ships in its deep water. By 1841 the Hartlepool Railway was carrying more coal than any other railway in the North East of England. Timber was also imported for the pits.

In 1844 a dispute with the Hartlepool Railway and Dock Company led the Hartlepool and Stockton Railway Company under Ralph Ward Jackson to obtain an Act of Parliament to allow it to build a new dock outside Hartlepool on the west side near the ancient village of Stranton. Coal was brought to the new dock by linking the Stockton Hartlepool Railway with the Clarence Railway which connected the coal fields to Port Clarence. (Brethren, please keep the name of the Clarence Railway in mind.) This development was the beginning of the town of West Hartlepool, which was founded in 1847 and disappeared in 1967 when the two towns amalgamated under the ancient name of Hartlepool.

In 1859 a Royal Commission gave Ralph Ward Jackson permission to build a vast new harbour complex extending into Hartlepool Bay. This new complex was to be a ?Harbour of Refuge?, one of the four categories of harbours legally classified in those days and was defined as a harbour constructed specifically and primarily for the purpose of shelter. Due to later financial problems this project never went ahead, but as you will see later , the name harbour of refuge was to have a Masonic significance for Hartlepool.

By 1860 the value of goods exported from the two Hartlepool's was more than three times that of the combined exports of Newcastle, Shields, Sunderland, Stockton and the emerging Middlesbrough.

St Helen's Lodge 531

It is against this background of renaissance that St Helens Lodge was formed in old Hartlepool in 1846. There was no sponsoring lodge and its thirteen founders were members of nine different lodges who found themselves working in the area in occupations mainly connected with the sea. The founders included brethren from St Johns and Palatine Lodges in Sunderland and from Tees Lodge which had been formed the previous year in Stockton.

As you can imagine, the preferred name for the new lodge was St Hilda, from the magnificent old church on the headland and from St Hilda?s own links with Hartlepool where she lived before becoming Abbess of Whitby. Unfortunately South Shields had already beaten them to it in 1780 and so the name of St Helens was chosen following the discovery in 1845 on the headland of the ruins of the old chapel to St Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great.

St Helens Lodge initially met in the now demolished Kings Head Tavern in High Street. At the consecration there were 17 visitors; five from St John?s in Sunderland, five from Restoration in Darlington and seven from Tees Lodge in Stockton.

For some reason I haven?t been able to determine, the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Sir Cuthbert Sharp was not present. Sir Cuthbert was a native and ex mayor of Hartlepool and had written a famous book on the history of the town. After his knighthood he had moved to Sunderland from his home in the same street as the Kings Head Tavern where St Helens first met.

As the Provincial Grand Master at the time was Sir George Bowes who was never officially installed, I suppose that in effect, Sir Cuthbert was the acting PGM. Whatever the reason for his absence at St Helens consecration, which I suspect was ill health due to his advancing years, it is interesting to note that Hartlepool should have produced a mason of such high rank before it even had a lodge of its own. In 1858 St Helens purchased and moved to its present home in Regent Street in old Hartlepool.

The Harbour of Refuge 764

The next Lodge was consecrated in West Hartlepool in 1859 as a daughter of St Helens Lodge. It was called the Harbour of Refuge Lodge after the harbour of refuge Sir Ralph Ward Jackson had been given permission to build earlier in the same year.

Incidentally Sir Ralph?s nephew became the first Z of Fawcett Chapter which Harbour of Refuge Lodge subsequently formed although he never attended the Chapter again after its consecration! John Fawcett was the Provincial Grand Master when Harbour of Refuge Lodge was consecrated.

At first there was considerable opposition from Province to the formation of Harbour of Refuge Lodge because it was thought that the community was not big enough to support two lodges. However, the day was finally won when the West Hartlepool Brethren of St Helens explained that they were afraid of being mugged on the way home from the headland after leaving St Helens Lodge. ( It would appear brethren that at least some things don?t change!) There were only seven founder members, four of whom were from St Helens Lodge, but there were eighteen joining members and twenty four initiations in the first year alone so membership soon increased.

Harbour of Refuge Lodge first met at the Royal Hotel but in 1865 moved to a purpose built building in Upper Church Street.

In 1880 Harbour formed a daughter lodge, Stranton Lodge, named after the ancient village of Stranton. Its first master was J. W. Cameron the founder of the Lion Brewery in Stranton and the home of Strongarm beer.

Stranton Lodge 1862 & Clarence Lodge 2462

In 1893 Stranton formed its own daughter lodge, Clarence Lodge and moved to the purpose built new building in Raby Road which they had ready in time for Clarence's consecration.

There were then four lodges in the Hartlepool?s meeting in three buildings. Harbour of Refuge and its daughter Haven of Rest Lodge which was formed in 1922 did not move to Raby Road until 1946 and its old building became the Hartlepool College of Art.

It would be wrong to think that Stranton and Clarence Lodges were rich enough to construct the current Raby Road building on their own. The original building was smaller than it is today and was built with the help of a very hefty mortgage which took many years to pay off, especially with its extension to enable later additions to be made to the building.

The relationship of the later Hartlepool lodges to the first three is shown in the Single Line Diagram. This also shows the current role number of each of the eleven lodges and their respective year of consecration. The vertical positions on the sheet are to scale in terms of time.

The name Clarence was almost given to Stranton Lodge, but the latter name was chosen by a majority of only one vote in a ballot by its founders. Clarence was thus chosen for its daughter lodge, but no records exist to show why the name Clarence was considered in the first place. The lodge badge would suggest it was named after King William IV, who was invested as a Past Grand Master in 1787 while he was still the Duke of Clarence. However William, who reigned from 1830 to 1837 was not a popular king and I suspect the derivation may be an indirect one through the Clarence Railway which, you will remember, had played an important role in the foundation of West Hartlepool.

Connaught 2981 and Strathearn 4965

Connaught and Strathearn on the other hand are certainly named after HRH the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn who was the Grand Master when they were both consecrated.

Other Hartlepool Lodges

Harte is another ancient village next to Hartlepool and Heortnesse is a former name of the town.

Heugh is the Anglo Saxon word for headland and refers to the local name for the headland on which old Hartlepool was formed. Haven of Rest is another reference to Hartlepool?s maritime connections and Longscar is the name of the long reef in Hartlepool Bay that is submerged at high tide and was always a hazard to local shipping.

Finally, although it was a late starter in the province with St Helens being its eleventh lodge, Hartlepool did form the province?s eighth chapter, its first Mark Lodge, its fourth Royal Ark Mariners, its third Rose Croix and its first KT Perceptory, Royal and Select Masters, Sacred Monitor and Red Cross of Constantine Conclave.

Furthermore, the masons of Hartlepool presented Province with its still used Provincial Sword and its previous set of Provincial Banners. At the consecration of Harte Lodge in 1921, the founder members, who incidentally were mainly from Connaught rather than the mother Clarence Lodge, presented province with a censor and a set of silver consecration vessels for holding the consecrating elements of corn, wine, oil and salt.

That censor and those consecration vessels have been used by Provincial Grand Lodge at the consecration of all its new lodges and temples since that date.

Read the history on Harte Lodge here >>

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