Jewellery fit for a Freemason - the Birmingham shop that’s been bejewelling the brotherhood for 100 years

'It's not a secret society. It’s more a society with secrets'

Dear readers —  Masonic Jewellers, in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter, upholds a century-old tradition: crafting bespoke jewellery and paraphernalia for the Freemasons. On a rainy afternoon, The Dispatch visited the workshop, which uses techniques and equipment handed down through the generations. The Freemasons are a fraternal organisation, shrouded in secrecy, with a history that spans centuries. That didn’t stop them from trying to recruit our journalist, however. But before we get to that, a word from today’s sponsor and your Brum in Brief.

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Brum in Brief

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🥐New Indie Bakery Opening: The hugely popular Levain & Cherry bakery is opening a new site this winter on Pershore Road in Stirchley. Levain & Cherry is an independent French artisan bakery that offers customers the experience of seeing how bread is made from the very start to the finished loaf. It’s King’s Heath origin shop opened in August 2020 and sells everything from baguettes to pastries; exclusively using French organic flours from Moulin Viron — a family flour mill located just outside of Paris. So, expect some incredible baked goods, as well as a new hot drinks menu. Announcement here

🎉Joe Lycett Celebrates International Day of Birmingham: “Friends, Brummies, rubberneckers from Wolverhampton,” Lycett began, addressing an eclectic gathering outside of the town hall on Tuesday afternoon. The comedian has just returned from a world tour of sorts, visiting ten Birminghams around the world, with the aim of creating a ‘United States of Birmingham’. The informative journey will be televised in a new series for Sky. Lycett suggests we have the most in common with Birmingham Alabama: “They’re often overlooked, and people ignore them and say they’re not as good as the other cities around them,” he said. Lycett proposes that every 24 September he’d like to “celebrate the bonds that unite Birmingham’s all over the world. I expect in time it will become as popular, if not as Christmas, then at least as Maundy Thursday”.

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Jewellery fit for a Freemason — the Birmingham shop that’s been bejewelling the brotherhood for 100 years

By Alex Taylor

“What do you think of this?” asks Gurpreet, a Freemason and the marketer of Masonic Jewellers, as he rotates the face of his ring. As it turns, it reveals the hidden logo. 

Masonic Jewellers sits in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter. Its workshop upholds a century-old tradition: using time-honoured methods and time-tested equipment to craft bespoke jewellery and ornamental trinkets for Freemasons all over the world. It uses original tools, dyes and equipment that have been handed down between companies over generations, and bases its work on centuries-old schematics. 

For those unindoctrinated, the Freemasons are an international fraternal society that traces its origins back to the stonemasons’ guilds of medieval Europe — hence their symbolism of the compass and square, the tools used by the original masons. Freemasonry has since evolved into a secretive, symbolic organisation that operates out of ‘lodges’ (basically, clubhouses) that promote principles such as brotherhood, charity, and truth. The dress code varies depending on which lodge you’re in, but Birmingham ‘brothers’ wear a mourning suit (think of an undertaker’s garments) and many choose to adorn their clothes with masonic jewellery and paraphernalia. While the Freemasons aren’t a religious society, they require a belief in a high power — which can be anything from a God to your wife, and is symbolised in the ‘all-seeing eye’. 

Of course for many people today, Freemasonry is more often associated with the conspiracy theories that surround it. Many truth-seekers believe that the Freemasons’ secretive nature and use of elaborate rituals, symbols, and codewords are part of their malign influence on politics and society, with comparisons drawn to the Illuminati. If that’s the case, then why does Masonic Jewellers feel so… normal? Inside it’s a typical jeweller: pinewood everything, cabinets of non-masonic looking rings, bracelets and oscillating necklaces, all watched over by clusters of security cameras that hang like stalactites. Or perhaps this is just the perfect masonic disguise.  

Gurpreet leads me up some steep wooden stairs to a white, windowless office. Dozens of vintage and antique masonic rings hang from hooks on the wall behind his desk, each with a specific serial number for their model type. He tells me the collection is only growing with the demand and improvements that they regularly make to old designs. 

Gurpreet. Photo by Alex Taylor/The Dispatch

Gurpreet, with black hair and a well-groomed beard, is relatively new to the society, but evidently proud of his membership. “If a Freemason wants to be discreet about their affiliation with Freemasonry, he might want to wear one of these,” he says, showing me the high-quality, decorated gold band on his finger, with Gurpreet’s hand-engraved initials on one side, and the masonic insignia on the other — Gurpreet revolves it as he speaks, inadvertently pivoting between identities as he does so.

I ask why a mason might want to be discreet. He replies that there are “a lot of misconceptions about what Freemasonry is. It can set off alarm bells with people wondering — is it a cult?” Of course, there’s a cyclical element here: they’re secretive because people think they’re a cult, but people think they’re a cult because they’re secretive. Gurpreet doesn’t dispute this, but is keen to note how the organisation is “not a secret society anymore. It’s more a society with secrets.”