En: St. Edmund’s Masonic Church, Rochdale

St. Edmund’s Masonic Church, Rochdale

by Jeff Peace

St Edmund’s Church was commissioned by Albert Hudson Royds, a industrialist, banker and Freemason who belonged to Rochdale’s prominent Royds family of wool merchants, financiers of the Rochdale Canal.Royds acquired a crossroads at the highest point of Rochdale and commissioned the Manchester-based practice of James Medland and Henry Taylor to design and construct a new church building “at a time when Freemasonry in Rochdale was a strong force and its members were stalwarts of the local community”. The building was constructed between 1870-1873 at a cost between £22,000 (£1.45 million as of 2013), and £28,000 (£1.84 million as of 2013), at a time when a suitable parish church could have been built for £4,000 (£260 thousand as of 2013).

References to the traditions of Masonry are everywhere at St Edmund’s, in the weathervane and lectern in particular. The interior of the church is designed around the geometric form of a cube. A hammerbeam roof springs from the walls and is decorated with the Masonic symbols of pomegranates, lilies and water lilies. The church has an “elaborate set” of stained glass windows with the Masonic theme on the south side of the building dedicated to building and Freemasonry. The Masonic theme climaxes in Royds Chapel, where the window depicts Nehemiah, Ezra and the Tyler, the guard of a Masonic Lodge, wielding the Tyler’s sword. Solomon’s Temple is shown with a likeness of Albert Hudson Royds as one of the master masons. In the main body of the church, the lectern features three brass columns all with the symbolic tools of masoncraft engraved on the base.

Abandoned

St. Edmund’s Church has now been abandoned and is in desperate need of restoration. Should American Masons work with others in England to save this Masonic landmark?

More information about St. Edmund’s is available at the links below.

Links

• The Telegraph Masonic ‘Da Vinci Code’ church in danger, warns charity.

• Church of Saint Edmund, Rochdale Wikipedia

• More photos of St. Edmund’s Church

Heritage status

Source: Wikipedia

Many churches in Rochdale display reference to Freemasonry but none so prominently as St Edmund’s. The church was designated as a Grade II* listed building in 1985. The Victorian Society, the United Kingdom's national charity responsible for the study and protection of Victorian and Edwardian arts and architecture, identified the building as "unusual and extraordinary" but also critically endangered, placing it among the nation's top-10 endangered buildings.

The building was upgraded to a Grade I listed building in September 2010 largely due it being a rare example of Masonic architecture on a church, as opposed to a Masonic Lodge. Nick Bridgland, Heritage Protection Team Leader for English Heritage in northern England said that "St Edmunds is unique as it merges the architectural style of Gothic revival with Masonic symbolism to create a building which is not only a successful parish church but also a temple to Freemasonry. The completeness of the Masonic scheme is unparalleled in England and the importance of this building is reflected in its Grade I listing"