Langthorne Lodge

Rosslyn Lodge

Cromwell Lodge

Thomas Paycocke

Langthorne Lodge has sponsored seven Daughter Lodges: -

1891
Woodgrange Lodge
No.2409

1900
Sir Erkenwald Lodge
No.2808

1901
Aldersbrook Lodge
No.2841

1920
Volentes Lodges
No.4052

1922
Valentines Park Lodge
No.4412

1925
Seon Lodge
No.4794

1947
Tutela Lodge
No.6559

Emulation Ritual

1st Thursday
FEB, Apr, Sep, Oct, Dec.

4th Thursday
May.

Langthorne Lodge was consecrated Thursday, 12th December 1872, sponsored by Capper Lodge No. 1076. In its early days Langthorne Lodge met at the Swan Hotel in Stratford, but in 1885 moved to the Angel Hotel in Ilford staying for 20 years when they moved to the assembly rooms at The Great Eastern Hotel at Liverpool Street Station. In 1942 they moved to Freemasons Hall. In 1985 they moved back to Upminister but the Lodge was ailing and eventually went down to 11 active members. It was finally bought to Braintree in 1994.

Since its arrival at the Howard Hall, Braintree the Lodge has gone from success to success, now boasting 45 members, and more significantly many of the newer members are young and enthusiastic. Well over 100 people came to the 125th birthday celebration.

Lodge Crest
In the Domesday Book Robert Gernon is recorded as having in Essex 44 Manors, including the Manor of West Ham, Oakley, Ham (West), Ham (East) and Stansted amongst them. The entire English Barony of which Gernon possessed passed to the Montfitchet's in the reign of Henry 1.

In 1135 William De Montfitchet founded a Cistercian Monastery at Stratford Langthorne in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary and All Saints, endowing it with the manor of West Ham, the advowson of the Parish Church of All Saints near which it stood and other estates.

The Monastery was a vast and important building. It is difficult for us to realise what a hive of industry a great monastery like this really was. Everything that was eaten or drunk, or worn, almost everything that was made or used by the inmates, was produced upon the spot. The corn grew on their own land and was ground in their own mill by their own miller. Their clothes were made from the wool of their own sheep, and they are known to have possessed a flock of at least 800 in the immediate neighbourhood of the Abbey. They had their own tailors and shoe makers, carpenters and blacksmiths, butchers and barbers. They kept their own bees and grew their own garden produce and fruit etc, had their own vinery and grew grapes.

The building was ransacked during the dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and sadly there is no remains of the Abbey left today.

For more information about Langthorne Lodge please contact the Secretary, Tom Keeper on 01708 478672