Ashley Hill Lodge No. 7861 was founded in 1963 by twenty men from the Maidenhead area who lived within sight of Ashley Hill. It has met ever since, and today meets at the Berkshire Masonic Centre in Sindlesham.
A cold start
The summons in the lodge archive is printed with the date first planned for the consecration: Wednesday 5 December 1962. It never happened. That winter was one of the coldest on record, with snow lying from early December to the end of February, and the plans had to change so that everyone could get there.
The lodge was finally consecrated on 18 April 1963 at the Masonic Hall in High Town Road, Maidenhead, by RW Bro Lt-Col R H Ingham Clark, Provincial Grand Master, assisted by his Deputy, W Bro Brigadier Edwin Flavell DSO MC TD DL, and members of the Provincial Executive. Afterwards everyone dined in style: smoked salmon, turtle consommé, guinea fowl, fruit salad and a Welsh rarebit savoury, with wine and coffee.
The founders
The sponsoring lodge was Ellington Lodge No. 1566, and five of the twenty founders were Past Masters of it. The first Master was W Bro John Jones JP, managing director of J M Jones, a large building contractor in the Maidenhead area. The founding Secretary, W Bro Philip Kinsey, was a retired solicitor and a Past Master of the Lodge of St George No. 1152 in Singapore and of Old Millhillian Lodge No. 5752.
The founders wished to attract men of mature personal and business standing like themselves, who would not feel the need for prolonged proceedings, either in the lodge or at the festive board.
From the lodge history
In the early days a group of keen members started a Class of Instruction, partly to keep the founders’ way of working the ceremonies, and partly so that members could get to know each other informally. It still meets every other Wednesday.
Sixty years in three places
- 1963Consecrated at the Masonic Hall, High Town Road, Maidenhead, where the lodge met for its first nineteen years.
- 1965The lodge banner, presented by W Bro Bertram Wheeler, is dedicated on 2 June.
- 1982The lodge moves to Linden Hall, Kiln Green, within sight of Ashley Hill itself.
- 1985Linden Hall closes. The lodge moves to the Berkshire Masonic Centre at Sindlesham, where it still meets.
The hill
Ashley Hill is the highest point in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, at 145 metres. Today it is wooded again, and the summit lies within private grounds. When the founders chose the name, the hill had been cleared of most of its trees, and that bare skyline is what you see on the lodge emblem and banner.