We give you a warm welcome to the St Paul Lodge Web-Site, whether you are a Freemason or not.

Non-Masons may find some interesting and informative facts about Freemasonry.  There are also links to other Masonic Sites providing a useful insight into our organisation.

Freemasonry, under the United Grand Lodge of England, is the UK's largest secular, fraternal and charitable organisation. It teaches moral lessons and self- knowledge through participation in a progression of allegorical two-part plays.

It has over 300,000 Members working in nearly 8,000 Lodges throughout England and Wales, and 30,000 more Members overseas.

There are separate Grand Lodges for Ireland (which covers north and south) and Scotland, with a combined membership of 150,000. Worldwide, there are probably 5 million members.

In the late 1500s and early 1600s, there was a group, which was interested in the promotion of religious and political tolerance in an age of great intolerance when differences of opinion on matters of religion and politics were to lead to bloody civil war. In forming Freemasonry, they were trying to make better men and build a better world. As the means of teaching in those days was by allegory and symbolism, they took the idea of building as the central allegory on which to form their system. The main source of allegory was the Bible, the contents of which were known to everyone even if they could not read, and the only building described in detail in the Bible was King Solomon's Temple, which became the basis of the ritual.