Charity

Kindness has always been a core principle of Freemasonry. Individuals give time and money to help others, whether locally, nationally or globally. It may be realising a dream for a member’s child, caring for older Freemasons, volunteering on a local community project, making donations to other UK charities or responding to an international disaster appeal.

Today we are one of the UK’s top charities, raising over £33 million a year, and one of its
main grant-giving bodies

See below the specific charities to which our lodge has donated

Ilkley Food Bank 

Ilkley Foodbank donation event at Tesco is supported by Ben Rhydding Lodge 
Please feel free to visit and feel even more free to donate.🥫🍭🎂🍰

Medical Needs & Hospital Education Services




Ben Rhydding Lodge donated money to buy musical instruments for Medical Needs & Hospital Education Services. These were presented by W Bro Andrew Hill.

This message below is from Jan (Lady in the Photo) who works in the children's ward. 


"We've got a 14 year old on the ward who had a stroke and can hardly move now.  He's been using the instruments this week and he's so happy. We've had loads of laughs with him. The instruments are making such a difference to what we can offer the kids."






Supporting Candlelighters

 Ben Rhydding Lodge was pleased to be able to donate 2 card readers to Julie Mountain of Ilkley Candlelighters (children's cancer charity) at their fund-raising quiz at St Margaret's Church Hall last Saturday. The charity have found that donations have fallen as we increasingly become a cashless society. We all hope that the card readers will rejuvenate this excellent charity.

Teddies for Loving Care

The 250,000th Teddies for Loving Care bear has been given to a young patient at Leeds Children’s Hospital, marking a huge milestone in a Yorkshire-wide initiative bringing comfort to children in hospital 💜🐻
The Teddies for Loving Care (TLC) is managed by local Yorkshire West Riding Freemasons volunteering their time to run the initiative. Hospitals can be frightening places for children. TLC is a way of providing much-needed comfort for young patients at a time of enormous anxiety, helping to improve their hospital experience. Every child that receives a teddy gets to take it home.
To celebrate the milestone, members from the Freemasons’ Yorkshire Province visited the hospital with ‘Big Ted’ to meet staff and patients.
On behalf of patients at Leeds Children’s Hospital, thank you to the Freemasons for their incredible support!

Supporting Ilkley Fountain

Ben Rhydding Lodge was pleased to make a donation to support the building of a replacement fountain at the bottom of Mill Ghyll 

Mill Ghyll Fountain


The  shape of the fountain is inspired by the sphagnum moss which grows on Ilkley Moor and which has the environmental benefit of capturing both water and carbon.

The fountain was opened by Alan Titchmarsh who has strong links to Ilkley.


Supporting Scouts and Guides

To start the raising of funds for the replacement of the old rotting Ben Rhydding Scout Hut.


Ben Rhydding Lodge was proud to donate £6000.00 on behalf of the Ilkley Freemason. The replacement building was completed and opened in 2014 and

the Master and Brethren were invited to the dedication of the New Building.


The building is now a centre for the Rangers, Scouts, Beavers, Guides, Brownies and Rainbows.

It is also used by the local community for keep fit, Yoga, Parties, Weight Watchers etc and is now a very busy community centre.







If you are interested in becoming a freemason, then please get in touch.