Airedale Lodge has been in existence for the last one hundred and eighty years. The first meeting was held on April 11^th 1827 in the Malt Shovel Inn in Baildon. The first W.M. Being W.Bro Wainman Holmes.

An extract of 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.

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 The records of Airedale Lodge are full of brotherly love and charity, the unpublished instances far exceeding those recorded in its history.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. My original intention was to say nothing about it, not having thought about its date of constitution; but my mother lodge will not, and indeed cannot, be excluded from the roll of honour.