HOME Current Issue Index by Issue Search the Site Translate On-Line Printer Friendly Internet Help Centre Regulars Specials Humour Book Reviews Links Affinity Lodges Subscriptions About FMT ADVERTISING Contact Us

BACK NEXT Summer 2008 Issue 45 Letter from the Editor Grand Lodge News News and Views On The Level International News Beyond the Craft Perambulating the Lodge Masonic Dining and Celebration Interview: The Grand Chancellor The Orator Walking the Way of Saint James Abd el-Kader: Algerian Nationalist and Freemason Province of Cambridgeshire Library & Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Review: Committed to the Flames Review: The Mythology of Secret Societies Review: The Dawn of Astrology Letters to the Editor Internet Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge Quarterly Communication Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter RMBI Masonic Samaritan Fund Grand Charity RMTGB Canon Richard Tydeman: Looking unto the Rock Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Masonic Museums Library & Museum of Freemasonry One of the two new exhibitions being organised by the Library and Museum this summer is called Women and Freemasonry: The Centenary, which runs from 4 June to 19 December. It is the first wideranging exhibition on this subject at Freemasons’ Hall. In June 2008 the Order of Women Freemasons celebrated its centenary. It is one of two Grand Lodges in England whose membership is restricted to women. The occasion was too good an opportunity to miss to explore the issue of women and Freemasonry. Library and Museum staff are frequently asked by the public why women are not allowed to be members and I, personally, have often faced the remark that “I didn’t know ... The Province of Cambridgeshire Masonic Library and Museum Our visit to The Province of Cambridgeshire Masonic Library and Museum was opportune and historic. Rodney J Wolverson the Provincial Grand Master formally launched the new Museum with a personal presentation handed to the Chairman of the Library and Museum, Jack D Cole. In 1980 the Council Management decided to form a Library and Museum. A considerable collection ... Library & Museum of Freemasonry Researching the exhibition to mark the centenary of London Grand Rank, which is at the Library and Museum in Great Queen Street until early May, it was a surprise to find that the Library and Museum had very few photographs of Freemasons wearing London Grand Rank regalia. One particularly good image was finally selected, but there was a problem: we didn’t know the identity of the man in the photo. Obviously he was a holder of London Rank, which narrowed the field somewhat, and an examination of a distinctive lodge jewel he was wearing allowed us to identify him as a member of Leyton Lodge No. 2626. Furthermore, comparing that jewel to one in the collections, his was a ... The Potters' Art There was a sense of excitement as we walked through the doors of the Kent Museum of Freemasonry in the very heart of Canterbury. Applications to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant of £250,000 have received positive responses and the Museum trust, under the Chairmanship of Assistant Provincial Grand Master Charles Boxer and Secretary Roger O’Brien, are intent on preparing themselves. On our visit to the Museum we decided ... Persistence Pays Off in Discovery of Miniature Many provinces have built up, over the years, a collection of portraits, engravings and photographs of their Provincial Grand Masters. In some cases it can be a challenge to find an image of some of the early PGMs. This was certainly so in Essex where, prompted by the publication of a Provincial history and the opening of a Provincial museum, much effort was spent trying to develop such a collection. One early Provincial Grand Master, William Wix, seemed to have eluded all efforts and no known image had been located either in national collections such as the National Portrait Gallery or from local sources. Then, one day this summer, during yet another search of the internet ... Early Masonic Jewels The Worcester Masonic Museum is famed throughout the masonic world for its outstanding collection of the medals and jewels belonging to the Craft and beyond. In August 1884, George Taylor, an enthusiastic Freemason and numismatist of Kidderminster, sold his collection at cost to the Museum, following an exhibition at the Guildhall in Worcester. This was to become the nucleus of the Museum collection. Just 7 years later in 1891, together with the ... Launching a Museum in Essex As reported in the last issue of Freemasonry Today the Provincial Grand Master, John Webb, officially opened the Essex Masonic Library and Museum last autumn. The progress that has been made just eight months later when I visited, is quite astounding. A range of collectables are displayed in captioned trays and shelves in an attractive and well-furnished room. A section is dedicated to the library and the atmosphere is that of a fully-fledged ... Sussex Masonic Centre The City of Brighton, the masonic capital of the Province of Sussex, is dominated by the stupendous Royal Pavilion. There is a strong masonic connection in this context, which starts with HRH The Prince of Wales (1762-1830 and, from 1820, King George IV), who was initiated into Freemasonry in 1787 and served as ... Scrimshaw and Folk Art The image that the word scrimshaw conjures up is the painstaking etching on ivory or bone. The formal definition will take us back to an ancient indigenous American craft, later adopted by the whale hunters of the early 1800s. Long voyages could be monotonous and whale teeth and jawbones were in abundance ... Guarding Cornwall's Masonic History We were in the Province of Cornwall at the south-eastern end of St Ives bay, six miles from Penzance, to visit Hayle, a town with a rich industrial heritage, coming into importance in the mid eighteenth century as did Freemasonry itself in the area. I could not avoid thinking how tough such a journey would have been in the mid-1700s when contact with Grand Lodge in London was accomplished on horseback or in uncomfortable coaches ... 333 Banbury Road, Oxford It was only a matter of time before Oxfordshire, which traces its masonic roots to 1795 and is so closely associated with the world of academia, should also have its own centre for masonic education and study. But it took a while: that aspiration, first articulated in 1954, was finally fulfilled in 1990 when The Province of Oxfordshire Library and Museum was launched initially by the efforts of John Jones and Peter Laurence, and then of Stuart ... Bath and the 'Lost' Furniture It was at a chance encounter late last year with the Assistant Grand Master, David Williamson, that the extraordinary Masonic Hall – the converted Theatre Royal - in Old Orchard Street, Bath, was pointed out to me. Bath is a University City and David Williamson’s interest is in the contacts between University students throughout the country and local masonic authorities. The Masonic Hall at Bath will certainly make an exceptional venue ... Specialists in Freemasonry One perennial legend associated with Irish Freemasonry is that of Mrs Elizabeth (Richard) Aldworth neé St Leger, ‘The Lady Freemason’. While very little of her story can be confirmed by solid documentation there is certainly evidence, according to the Grand Lodge of Ireland, of masonic activity relating to her story: she was ... Enjoying Irish Freemasonry Of the dozen or more trips the Editor of Freemasonry Today and I have enjoyed photographing and writing this series of articles on masonic museums, our visit to Dublin will certainly remain the most outstanding of our travels. In organising the visit with Rebecca Hayes, the Archivist and Morgan J McCreadie ... After the Flames It was as a guest of one of the Lodges in the Province of Derbyshire that I first met H.W. (Bert) Marks in 1992. He had just been formally appointed Librarian of the Province and his enthusiasm and warm sense of humour were as apparent then as they are today. In just a few months Bert retires, giving up what has been a labour of love for some two decades and he was rightly awarded the Provincial Grand Master’s certificate of Merit ... The earliest days Once more Michael Baigent and I made our way to the Grand Lodge of Scotland in George Street, Edinburgh; we were delighted at the opportunity to return. Librarian, Robert Cooper, received us in his study on the second floor with his usual warmth and big smile ... Robbie Burns' Maul and All Edinburgh is a beautiful City and Grand Lodge is situated in its heart. The bus I took to get to the George Street address let me down at the stop named Freemasons’ Hall; festive decorations around the Street had one of the Christmas trees highlighted Grand Lodge of Scotland. This overt approach to freemasonry ... Masonic History at "The Knole" Entering from the north, it is not easy to immediately appreciate the size and beauty of the one time Victorian gentlemen’s residence, The Knole, now the Freemasons Hall in Boscombe, Bournemouth. After its completion in 1873 for Edmund Christie, the imposing Mansion was inhabited by a number of famous people including Sir Henry Page Croft, the first MP for Bournemouth. In 1957 it was purchased by the combined effort of the two Masonic centres ... Preserving Our Heritage Following on so many visits to the Museums and Libraries in our Provinces whilst writing these articles for Freemasonry Today, I felt on friendly and familiar ground when I joined twenty-four librarians and curators at the Masonic Library & Museum Group’s bi-annual meeting in Leicester. As I entered Freemasons’ Hall on the main London Road, at about 11.00 am, I could sense a buzz of excitement and anticipation ... A Most Public Museum A Museum and Library for the masonic Province of Warwickshire was first created in 1908. It enjoyed a period of prosperity but when war broke out in 1939, the entire collection had to be housed in protective boxes which were then stored in the Congregational Church School in Manchester. It was not until the current purpose-built premises in Stirling Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, were finally opened in 1971 that the collection of books and artefacts ... Hidden Treasures Freemasonry has always attracted men of great skill in the crafts. Probably one of the most famous was Thomas Harper, Deputy Grand Master of the Antients Grand Lodge from 1801 to 1813, who created large pierced jewels of exquisite beauty. Any masonic museum which holds examples of his work has readily displayed them... Unique Finds in Manchester Our visit to the Manchester Masonic Hall was sandwiched, so to speak, between a delightful attendance at the rededication ceremony of the newly discovered masonic painted floor cloth hosted by Beneficent Lodge at Macclesfield, Cheshire, and Michael Baigent’s address next evening to the Manchester Lodge for Masonic Research. The evening’s ceremony in Macclesfield was conducted by the quintessential Provincial Grand Master ... The Eaton Lodge Masonic Museum Early Masonic history of the Provinces is often lost in the emphasis given to London when the origins of organised Freemasonry are discussed. Four London Lodges formed the Premier Grand Lodge on 24 June 1717 but Freemasonry already existed in various Provinces. It was in Warrington, on the border of Cheshire and Lancashire, that Elias Ashmole was made a Freemason in 1646, and Cheshire boasts the first Provincial Grand Master ... Trench Art Art is often born out of hardship, adversity and suffering, and this is nowhere more true than in the field of armed conflict. From the Spanish Armada to Vietnam, from the BoerWar to Bosnia, across more than two centuries and five continents, the most amazing collection of artefacts of all kinds – much of it masonic - has come into being as a result of war. Trench Art is the name given to objects - be they of metal, cloth, wood, bone, stone or any ... Berkshire Masonic Library and Museum I was not surprised to come across Robin White at the Bloomsbury Auction of Rare Masonic and Occult books in April. He is well known as a dynamic masonic librarian and the Province of Berkshire must consider themselves fortunate to have him at the helm of their Library and Museum of Freemasonry. His dynamism was manifest at its best during the Auction. He secured several lots after fierce bidding ... Raised from Adversity Our visit to the Jersey Masonic Library and Museum, the fifth of the joint trips Michael Baigent and I have undertaken, was to prove enjoyable and instructive. The Channel Islands have a unique history, not least because they were the only part of British Territory occupied by the Germans in the Second World War ... Snuff and Silver It is always a delight to meet up with old friends. I had not seen Peter Marks, now Chairman of the Dorset Masonic Museum and Library, for the best part of 10 years. He reminded me that we had last met at the wonderful surroundings of the Masonic Hall in St Hélier, Jersey. Since then there have been interesting developments. Situated almost exactly half way between Poole and Bournemouth, and a walking distance from ... The Worcester Masonic Museum From the moment I saw John Hart’s warm, smiling face waiting to welcome me at Worcester station, I could tell the Worcester Museum of Freemasonry was in good hands. John is an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and very proud curator. He was appointed just four years ago. The thirty-year ‘reign’ of his predecessor, Tommy Grounsell, had been exceedingly fruitful. The Museum collection became well known ... Canterbury's Masonic Heritage The Kent Masonic Library and Museum is situated in the heart of beautiful Canterbury, just a few hundred yards west of the magnificent cathedral. The building is surrounded by other custodians of the city’s legacy: the Buffs Museum to the north, the Heritage Museum and Canterbury Tales Exhibit to the south – all within easy reach along ancient alleyways ... Masonic Treasures in Leicester Through Masonic artefacts, the whole spectrum of the history of Freemasonry is opened to us. Even a brief visit to any one of our many Masonic museums will transport us through centuries of our craft. The Leicester masonic Library and Museum is situated on the first floor of the conveniently placed Masonic Hall just a five-minute walk from Leicester station. The whole building has an ambiance of friendliness and when you enter a sense of serenity and calm descends. The first striking exhibit is a three-tier glass case along the left wall entitled ... Durham Strides Out into the New Millennium Rarely are Freemasons seen in public in full regalia. More’s the pity – the colourful spectre, along with banners and flags, is a sure crowd-puller, as Durham masons found when they marched through the streets of Beamish to lay the foundation stone of a reconstructed pre-First World War Masonic hall. Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum, is of national and international importance, situated in over 300 acres ... Putting on the Style Eaton Lodge No. 777 (now 533) was granted its warrant from the Grand Lodge of England on 27 August 1846 and held its inaugural meeting on 4 November that year. Like many other newly formed lodges, Eaton purchased surplus regalia from other lodges or from those that were defunct. Eaton purchased regalia from Harmony Lodge No.705 of Knutsford in Cheshire, which had its first meeting in 1818 and its last in 1839. Apparently, in 1822 Harmony Lodge had purchased jewels and paraphernalia from the moribund Beneficent Lodge No.513 of Macclesfield in Cheshire ... Grand Library, Grand Museum The Grand Lodge Library and Museum has just become a Charitable Trust. I asked the Librarian and Curator, John Hamill, what the Library and Museum does, and why it has become a Charity. THE EDITOR: The Grand Lodge Library and Museum is one of England’s hidden treasures. What’s the background to it? John Hamill: We were formed in 1837 from a small collection of books and artefacts found in a cupboard in the Grand Secretary’s office. We were fortunate to have Henry Sadler appointed as Librarian in 1887. Over the next 20 years he built the solid foundation ...   Masonic Museums © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008