Ancient Order of Druids, Monmouth was First Lodge in Wales. (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, January 03, 2014, 15:37 (3971 days ago) @ Jefff

The following link is to a lengthy research paper by Dr Andrew Prescott discussing in great detail the history and aims of all forms of Freemasonry in Wales. I'm unable to copy any text to this post, but it makes very interesting reading. It states that in the late 1700s "there was an upsurge in formation of Masonic Lodges in Wales, and that many of these were in old Tory centres such as Wynnstay, Holywell, Swansea and Monmouth". It goes on to say that the Ancient Order of Druids was revived in Soho(London) in 1781, and the Order quickly became very popular."
A Druid's Lodge was established in Hereford in 1809, which in turn led to the establishment of their first Lodge in Wales at Monmouth. By the time of the foundation of the Druids Lodge in Merthyr in 1837, there were over 230 Lodges in the Order. The Ancient Order was very popular in Wales in the first half of the nineteenth century, altho Welsh interest in the order subsequently declined".

Please see
http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/prescott10.html

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Altho perhaps irrelevant to this post, if like me you have an interest in Sir Winston Churchill, you may be interested to know that as well as being a Freemason like his father before him, in 1908 he also joined a Druids Lodge near his Oxfordshire family home. He's standing at centre of this photo of his initiation at Blenheim Palace.
https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/ancient-ord...

This may have been purely to aid his career, as such memberships were very fashionable at the time particularly within the upper classes, altho' it can only have been beneficial when working with US President and fellow Freemason F.D. Roosevelt during WW2.
http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/beresiner7.html