Welcome
A Brief History
On a cold winters day in Manchester, England, Friday 20th January 1893,
ninety five Masons assembled at the Palatine Hotel in Hunts Bank, Victoria
Street, near Victoria Station. Palatine Hotel was built in 1843, a massive
edifice for its time, and built long before the nearby railway, initially the
"Manchester and Leeds" railway but soon to become the "Lancashire and
Yorkshire" Railway and its important terminus - Victoria Station, opened in
1844. For reasons not recorded in the minutes, though possibly because of
expansion and redevelopment in the Long Millgate area, the Lodge moved
to the Albion Hotel on the East Side of Piccadilly in central Manchester early
in 1896. This was after the compilation of a special report by a committee
appointed "to gain information with respect to a more suitable Lodge
room", Victoria Hotel, Mosley Hotel, Freemason's Hall in Cooper Street, the
Grand Hotel, as well as the Albion Hotel, are fully listed in this special report,
which is still kept safely with other Lodge documents, and is very
informative reading for conditions in late 1895. It lists all details of charges,
catering, menus, accessibility, nights available, staff available, lighting,
storage facilities etc., what Lodges already met there, even actual
measurements of rooms and sufficiency of size - and toilet facilities. The
Lodge grew, and grew, until "bursting at the seams" it had to move to still
larger accommodation. It did so to the Midland Hotel, near to what was the
"Cheshire Lines Railway" (later "Great Northern Railway") terminus - Central
Station (now G-Mex) - in January 1904, when this new hotel was opened.
This was then certainly a prestigious venue, encouraging further growth,
successful Masonic meetings and popular social events, for almost 40 years.
The Masonic Temple in Bridge Street, Manchester, now called the
"Freemason's Hall", was dedicated on the 24th October 1929. It was
available for Lodges and approaches were made for Palatine Lodge to move
there, but apparently its facilities did not attract it from the Midland Hotel
until March 1943, when this took place in the middle of World War II, no
doubt brought about by complex wartime difficulties, though no specific
reason is recorded. The last meeting at the Midland Hotel was the
Installation of W.Bro Tom Bromley in January 1943, at 12.15pm on Saturday
16th, lunch at 1.30pm, 44 members/visitors being present. Due to the
redevelopment of Freemasons Hall, and other geographical considerations,
the Lodge moved again during the summer of 2009 to its present home at
Middleton Masonic club located on Manchester Old Road M24 4DY
Manchester, United Kingdom, telephone 0161 643 295
The Lodge Members
From Postmen to Accountants and Taxi Drivers to
Management Consultants, we all have an interest in
the history of Masonry spanning the course of more
than two thousand years. A Masonic Lodge is a
place of support, learning, advice, friendship and the
opportunity to meet many more people with similar
interests. Palatine Lodge meets at Middleton
Masonic Club every fourth Monday of the month,
from September to May with a break for the
Christmas period in December, a total of eight times
during a year. The meeting usually starts around
6pm and is generally concluded by 7:30 to 8pm, and
afterwards continues in the dining room for a more
informal get-together accompanied by an extremely
good evening meal. Not only do we meet each other
within a Masonic setting our wives and girlfriends
also meet at least once a year, sometimes twice, for
a social event consisting of a meal and
entertainment enjoyed by all. It doesn’t stop there,
at Palatine we organise an annual trip out to ..
somewhere, in 2016 we hired two canal barges and
spent the day on the canal at Marple. In 2017 we
paid a visit to the east Lancashire Railway and had a
very enjoyable day. The history of Palatine dates
back more than 130 years, our centenary year was
1993 and we also celebrated our 1000th meeting in
September 2010. More details can be found within
these pages, please use the navigation bar to
explore.. and remember, any questions, please
contact us…