September 2024

For more than 300 years, Freemasons have been sharing friendship, helping good causes – and somehow courting controversy. This has dogged a movement that has more than 8,000 members in East and West Kent, 190,000 across England, Wales and Scotland, and 5,000 female members. Secrecy, alleged strange practices, aprons and “secret” handshakes, nepotism – accusations fly. Yet, as Mark Costelloe, an Assistant Provincial Grand Master for the Masonic Province of East Kent explained in his fascinating MMF talk in the Maidstone Museum Friends’ Shop on September 12, 2024, they derive from stonemasons of old and represent nothing sinister. 

The movement welcomes people of any religion and none, every background and culture, forming lifelong friendships and raising huge sums for charities.  He stressed it was far more open these days, actively marketing membership amid – like so many membership and voluntary organisations – slowly falling numbers. Richard Wingett, chairman of trustees from the Kent Museum of Freemasonry in Canterbury, explained the history of the movement, recalling that freemasonry evolved from the practices of stonemasons from ancient Egypt and Roman times, leaving their individual marks on stonework, as can be seen from later examples on the walls of cathedrals and castles such as Rochester and Bodiam.

Modern masons engraved their own marks in Canterbury Cathedral during recent renovation.  Freemasonry is about integrity, respect, service, said Mark. It is one of the world’s biggest donors to charity, raising £51m worldwide in 2020, and huge sums for UK and Kent-based charities. “There aren’t any funny handshakes, they’re grips” he said.  “We’re here to support our communities, I’ve had nothing but friendship and enjoyment.” And here’s a curious fact: Premier League champions Manchester City wear pale blue shirts because in 1894, local masons bailed them out of financial strife, and adopted the masonic blue in gratitude.