Qualla: Kent Museum of Freemasonry

Kent Museum of Freemasonry: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Linda Spashett (Storye book), CC BY 3.0. When the old Freemasons' Hall in Great Queen Street, London, was demolished in 1930 to make way for the new Grand Temple, somebody had to decide what to do with the building's irreplaceable Victorian stained glass windows. Lord Cornwallis - Provincial Grand Master of Kent, and Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England - had a building going up in Canterbury that needed windows. Today those 19th-century panels still glow in the Kent Museum of Freemasonry on St Peter's Place, five minutes from Canterbury Cathedral. Behind them sits possibly the finest collection of Masonic material in Britain outside London itself.

Image: Linda Spashett (Storye book) | CC BY 3.0

Kent Museum of Freemasonry: From a Tavern to a Temple

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Linda Spashett (Storye book), CC BY 3.0. Speculative Freemasonry - the philosophical and ritual form that emerged from the medieval stonemasons' guilds - reached Canterbury in 1730. The city's first lodge began meeting at the Red Lion Tavern beside the old Guildhall on the High Street. According to Lane's Masonic Record...

Image: Linda Spashett (Storye book) | CC BY 3.0

Kent Museum of Freemasonry: Lord Cornwallis's Idea

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Linda Spashett (Storye book), CC BY 3.0. In 1919 the East Kent Masters Lodge No. 3931 was consecrated in Canterbury, and its first Master was Wykeham Stanley Cornwallis, 2nd Baron Cornwallis - the Provincial Grand Master of Kent. Looking at the growing collection, he conceived a Kent Provincial Library and Museum. Maids...

Image: Linda Spashett (Storye book) | CC BY 3.0

Kent Museum of Freemasonry: The Salvage from Great Queen Street

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Linda Spashett (Storye book), CC BY 3.0. F G Haywood, a Dover architect and Mason, drew up the plans in 1930. W W Martin of Ramsgate and G H Denne and Son of Walmer built it. Meanwhile Cornwallis - by then also Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England - was watching the demolition of the old Grand Librar...

Image: Linda Spashett (Storye book) | CC BY 3.0

Kent Museum of Freemasonry: What's Inside

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Linda Spashett (Storye book), CC BY 3.0. The collection holds more than 3,000 pieces: Masonic paintings, manuscripts, regalia, ceremonial glassware, porcelain, books, and presentation items spanning every Masonic order through the ages. There are items linked specifically to Canterbury and Kent - documents tracing the f...

Image: Linda Spashett (Storye book) | CC BY 3.0

Kent Museum of Freemasonry: Open to All

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Linda Spashett (Storye book), CC BY 3.0. Although the building sits in territory administered by the Masonic Province of East Kent, the museum itself is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation - charity number 1163887 - managed by a separate trust. Admission is free, the museum is open from 10 in the morning to 4 in the ...

Image: Linda Spashett (Storye book) | CC BY 3.0