Airedale Lodge 387 has been in existence for the last one hundred and ninety years. the first meeting was held on April 11th 1827 in the Malt Shovel Inn in Baildon. The first W.M. was a W.Bro Wainman Holmes.
In an extract from the early years of Airedale lodge from THE YORKSHIRE LODGES A Century of Freemasonry by J. RAMSDEN RILEY, Bradford (Historian of 387), P.P.G.D.C. West Yorkshire it lists.
1827. Airedale, Baildon, No. 814 ; now Airedale, Shipley, No. 387. This lodge was neither more nor less than a revival of the Duke of York’s Lodge, No. 502. Its history is now well known. It became No.543 in 1832 and No. 387 in 1863. Constituted at Baildon, the Airedale was removed to Shipley in December 1868, chiefly owing to the preponderance of Shipley and Bradford residents forming the members. On October 2, 1878, the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, M.W. Pro. G.M., opened the New Masonic Hall in the presence of a distinguished company of brethren from all parts. Since then many ” good men and true” have passed away, but at that time the Airedale was a model lodge, and as such was, and is, widely known and respected. A Mark lodge was attached to the Airedale, whose members were very well up in the degree, which they conferred (generally attending for that purpose at the Lodge of Hope, Bradford), thirty years ago. The records of Airedale Lodge are full of brotherly love and charity, the unpublished instances far exceeding those recorded in its history. By a singular coincidence it happens to be the last of the century. These are the written and previously approved published details. Further investigations have revealed that more or less all the Brethren of the new Lodge Airedale Lodge 814 were previously known to be of the Duke of York’s Lodge No. 502 last meeting held in Bingley Main Street Elm Tree Public House the same year. the chronological history of the predecessor is as follows: Duke of York’s Lodge

Date of Warrant or Constitution: 1788
Meeting Places
Black Boy Inn, French Gate, Doncaster, Yorkshire 1788
White Bear Inn, Hall Gate, Doncaster, Yorkshire 1793
King’s Arms, St. Sepulchre Gate, Doncaster, Yorkshire 1804
Elm Tree, Main Street, Bingley, Yorkshire 1807
Lodge Numbers
Lodge Number (1781): 529
Lodge Number (1792): 438
Lodge Number (1814): 502
Erased: Erased 4 Dec. 1822. Subsequently reinstated. Erased again 5 March 1828.

This would indicate that the new Airedale Lodge was born prior to the erasure of the Duke of York Lodge which though slightly disjointed and far from perfect lineage would make the Lodge 232 years old and not originally of the family of Bradford Lodges. The Bicentenary of Airedale lodge in 2027 would in reality mark its 239th year in existence. AJS.