Welcome to the Hamtun Lodge website. We meet at Woolston Masonic Centre, Manor Road South, Woolston, Southampton on the third Friday of the month from September (installation evening) to May. The aim of this site is to provide members with lodge-related information and to help promote the principles of Freemasonry in general.
Freemasonry is one of the oldest and largest world wide secular fraternity dedicated to the Brotherhood of Man. Although our members are required to confess a belief in a Supreme Being, Freemasonry is not a religion and has no underlying theology or religious dogma. The three great principles of Freemasonry are:
- charitable work within the community (Freemasonry is currently the second largest provider of monies to good causes after the National Lottery);
- moral uprightness and integrity; and
- fraternal friendship, tolerance and respect for others.
We conduct our meetings using various ritualised "plays" based on the construction of the temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon making use of the architectural symbolism of the tools of the medieval operative stonemason. Freemasons use this symbolism to teach moral and ethical lessons of the three grand principles of "Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth". We are taught through this allegorical ritual to speculate on the symbols and purpose of Freemasonry. There is no one accepted meaning and it is up to each individual mason to come to his own conclusions.