DISCOVER ERLEGH LODGE · OUR STORY
About Erlegh Lodge
For more than forty years, Erlegh Lodge No. 9110 has been a home for friendship, careful ceremony and good company in Berkshire. We take our name from Earley, the town on the eastern edge of Reading, and we meet a few miles away at Sindlesham. This is our story: where we come from, what we value, and what makes this lodge worth belonging to.
WELCOME
A lodge worth belonging to
Erlegh Lodge has always known what it is. Since its consecration on 10 May 1984, it has been a place where friendships are forged, ceremonies are performed with pride, and men of many different backgrounds come together as brothers.
Our name is a clue to our roots. “Erlegh” is the historic spelling of Earley, the Berkshire town just east of Reading from which we take our identity, and choosing the older form was our founders’ way of reaching back into the deep history of this place. We are a friendly, diverse and proudly local lodge, shaped by careful ceremony, warm fellowship and a tradition of generosity that has continued without pause for four decades.
You do not need any connection to Freemasonry to get in touch, and there is no obligation of any kind. We are simply glad to answer your questions and, when the time feels right, to welcome you as our guest.
WHERE WE CAME FROM
From two thriving lodges, a new one grew
Erlegh Lodge was consecrated on 10 May 1984, taking its place in the register of the United Grand Lodge of England as Lodge No. 9110. It grew from two established Berkshire lodges, Acorn and Sindlesham, both of which were thriving with waiting lists, and from the fast-growing communities of Earley and Lower Earley on the edge of Reading, which offered a natural home for a new one.
Our founders chose their moment with care. Through the 1980s, thousands of new families and professionals were settling in Lower Earley, then one of the largest private housing developments in Europe, and the founders saw the chance to build a lodge that would be genuinely of its community: modern, welcoming and forward-looking, yet faithful to the ancient traditions of the Craft.
From the outset, Erlegh was conceived as a “summer lodge”, meeting between May and December, founded, in the words of our own record, out of a love of good food, good wine and good friends. That character, warm, hospitable and unhurried, was written into the lodge from its very first meeting.
More than forty years on, those founding intentions have not only been fulfilled but built upon. The lodge has grown to include brothers from around the world and raised funds for good causes with distinction, earning a Platinum Award for its contribution to the Berkshire Province 2023 Festival. Through it all, it has remained the friendly, ceremonially proud and socially vibrant lodge its founders imagined.
1086
Domesday Book records the settlement as Herlei
c.1160–1362
The de Erlegh family hold the local manors
1984
Consecration of Erlegh Lodge No. 9110
2023
Platinum Award, Berkshire Province Festival
Today
A friendly, local and international lodge
OUR CHARACTER
Local, social and international
Every lodge has its own character. Three words have summed up ours since 1984, and they still describe exactly what you will find when you join us.
Local
Founded to serve Earley and Lower Earley, on the eastern edge of Reading, and proud of it. We keep strong ties to our community, including long support for the Earley Volunteer Driver Bureau, which helps vulnerable residents stay mobile and connected.
Social
A lodge built around good company. From the dining table to Ladies’ Nights, garden parties and evenings at the pub, partners and friends are part of our world. New members feel at home from the moment they arrive.
International
Brothers from the United States, South Africa, Nigeria, Croatia, Spain, Belgium, Turkey and Iran sit alongside our Berkshire members. Our diversity is not an accident of geography. It is a genuine source of strength.
LIFE AT THE LODGE
Life at Erlegh Lodge today
Beyond the ceremonies, Erlegh is a lodge of shared meals, celebrations and lasting friendships. Here are a few moments from our recent meetings and social occasions.
OUR YEAR IN FILM
A year at Erlegh Lodge
Each year we put together a short film of the meetings and social occasions that made it — probably the quickest way to see what belonging to this lodge actually looks like.
2026
48 seconds · music, no narration
OUR VALUES
Three values at the heart of Erlegh Lodge
Throughout the world, Freemasonry shares four guiding values: integrity, friendship, respect and service. Erlegh Lodge holds to all of them. Alongside them, three values of our own describe what has made this particular lodge what it is for more than forty years.
Excellence in ceremonies
Freemasonry is, at its heart, a ceremonial craft, and a ceremony performed well is a ceremony performed with respect: for the candidate who stands before us, for the traditions handed down through generations, and for our own commitment to something greater than everyday life. Our founders brought this standard from Acorn and Sindlesham, and it remains our inheritance.
Camaraderie
Brotherhood deepens around a table. From the festive board to Ladies’ Nights, garden parties and gatherings at the pub, ours is a lodge where a visitor feels welcome from the moment he arrives and a new member quickly feels at home. We are, as our own record has long said, a friendly lodge. That is not a small thing.
Embracing cultural diversity
Earley is one of the most diverse communities in Berkshire, and our lodge reflects and celebrates that. Freemasonry teaches that its great principles transcend nationality, culture and background. We do not merely accept that in the abstract; we live it at every meeting, and we are a better lodge for it.
Freemasonry’s four shared values, integrity, friendship, respect and service, are explained on our What is Freemasonry page.
A NAME WITH DEEP ROOTS
Why “Erlegh”, and not “Earley”?
By choosing the name Erlegh rather than Earley, our founders made a deliberate statement. They were not simply naming the lodge after a modern suburb. They were reaching back into nearly a thousand years of local history.
The name is far older than any road or railway. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where the settlement, then just east of what would become Reading, is recorded as Herlei, and its roots lie in Old English: most probably earn (eagle) and leah (a woodland clearing), giving us something close to “eagle wood”. In the medieval period the name became bound up with the de Erlegh family, the knightly family who held the local manors from around 1160 to 1362 and who took their name from the place, not the other way around.
Their mark is still on the map. It was John de Erlegh, “the White Knight”, who gave his name to Whiteknights, now the main campus of the University of Reading, and the older spelling survives too in Maiden Erlegh, Erlegh Court and Erleigh Road. Though the civic name settled on Earley over the centuries, the historic form lives on in those places, and in our lodge. It is a name that gives depth without obscurity, and heritage without pretension.
EVERY ELEMENT CARRIES MEANING
The badge of Erlegh Lodge
The badge of Erlegh Lodge rewards careful study, because every element carries meaning.
The shells. At its centre is a crimson seven-sided field bearing three silver scallop shells. The shells are drawn from the coat of arms of the de Erlegh family, a direct link to the medieval lords of Earley, and they also appear in the emblem of Sindlesham Lodge, our mother lodge. In the wider tradition of heraldry the scallop shell is the emblem of pilgrimage: of a purposeful journey undertaken with humility. That the lodge carries three shells, a number of deep significance in the Craft, suits a body of men committed to a continuing journey of self-improvement.
The oak leaves. Above the field, oak leaves connect us to Acorn Lodge, our grandmother lodge, and carry the enduring symbolism of the oak: strength, rootedness, and growth from small beginnings. The blue band that frames the whole emblem speaks to the Craft itself, to fidelity, brotherhood and ordered fellowship.
Taken together, the badge is a compact statement of who we are: a lodge rooted in the history of this corner of Berkshire, conscious of its Masonic lineage, and committed to a journey that is both individual and shared. It is not merely decoration. It is a symbol we carry with pride.
FIND US
Where we meet
Erlegh Lodge meets at the Berkshire Masonic Centre in Sindlesham, near Wokingham, the home of Freemasonry in the Province of Berkshire. The Province was based in Reading for many years, at Greyfriars, before moving out to Sindlesham in 1969, and the centre has been the heart of Berkshire Freemasonry ever since. The building itself has a long history, having served as a private house and later a college before the Province made it its own.
As a “summer lodge”, we hold most of our meetings on a handful of evenings between May and December, most of them followed by dinner together. Some traditions are entirely our own: our Christmas dinner is held in July, and our August meeting, held in Wokingham, is always a curry night. Our wider social calendar of Ladies’ Nights, festivals and garden parties runs throughout the year.
Berkshire Provincial Masonic Centre
Mole Road, Sindlesham, Wokingham RG41 5EA. A short drive from Earley, Reading and Wokingham alike.
GIVING BACK
Generosity that has never paused
Charitable giving has been part of Erlegh Lodge’s identity since 1984. In the past decade alone, our members have raised more than £20,000 for twelve causes, from the Earley Volunteer Driver Bureau on our doorstep to Alzheimer’s Research UK, Prostate Cancer UK, Macmillan and Sue Ryder. Our giving earned a Platinum Award in the Berkshire Province 2023 Festival, and it continued even through the pandemic, when our meetings could not.
£20,000+
raised in the last decade
12
causes supported
Platinum
Award, Berkshire 2023 Festival
COME AND MEET US
Curious? Let’s talk.
Erlegh Lodge is always glad to hear from men who are curious about Freemasonry, and from members of other lodges thinking of joining us. There is no quicker way to discover whether it is right for you than an honest, informal conversation, with no obligation of any kind.
Making an enquiry commits you to nothing. We will simply arrange a relaxed chat at a time that suits you. Nobody will pressure you, and you need never attend a meeting unless you choose to.