November meeting for St Oswald lodge, who meet in Darlington, was a double celebration. The Provincial Grand Master, Norman Eric Heaviside, was in attendance to represent the Province of Durham and to witness the installation of Donald Bowen (Don). After a well-executed ceremony upstairs which was a testimony to the effort from all those involved, Eric was presented with a cheque for £250 in the second rising from Don on behalf of the lodge towards the 2021 festival. Eric thanked the lodge for the donation and advised the brethren he would say more about it downstairs. At the festive board the brethren enjoyed a delicious meal of pate to start followed by carrot and coriander soup, chicken in mushroom sauce with vegetables, cheesecake, cheese and biscuits, finally followed by coffee and mints for those who could find the room.

Eric responded to his toast and informed the brethren what a lovely night it was and it was a joy for him to represent the Province of Durham and to see the ritual work done extremely well; a fine example of how to do it right. He further advised that he was very surprised to see yet another cheque from the lodge with it doing so well working towards the 2021 festival in terms of money raised already. Eric informed the brethren that since the start of the festival the money raised has averaged £10k per week, which is absolutely brilliant. The Province is almost at £1.7m towards the target of £2.7m and that it’s fantastic to see such sure support, with St Oswald lodge setting such a great example of how to support the festival. Eric pointed out to the brethren that you don’t have to be a big lodge to be successful and advised that St Oswald had raised £33,248 towards the festival already which is nearly double their platinum target which was circa £17k. Eric advised that St Oswald lodge is number one in the Province of Durham in terms of percentage of members committed to continuous giving (60%). Eric presented the 2021 festival platinum award to Don on behalf of the lodge and he confirmed that it was an absolute privilege for him to do so. Eric then invited Duncan Maw, lodge Charity Steward, to join him briefly and went on to present him with the platinum lapel pin for the lodge, thanking Duncan for all of his hard work and dedication as charity steward and money raised. After Eric had sat down Duncan thanked Eric for attending their meeting which gave it “added lustre” with his presence; Duncan presented Eric with a gin and tonic advent calendar as a token of appreciation.

The Provincial Grand Master, Norman Eric Heaviside along with the Festival Director, John Thompson made a formal visit to Durham Masonic Hall for to present Elvet Lodge with their Platinum Award.

Once the lodge had duly opened by their young Master, Michael Snowball, Eric was then ‘piped’ into the lodge room by the unusual sound of bagpipes courtesy of Frank Bonner.

The first business of the evening was a presentation of a somewhat ‘special’ cheque, to Eric for the sum of £7500 which elevated the Lodge form Silver to Platinum, thus taking their total contribution to over £19,000, so far, towards the Durham 2021 Festival.

Richard Langton then gave a wonderful resume on the life of the recent deceased Gordon Ryan, a long standing member of the lodge. Richard, a retired solicitor, had been entrusted by Gordon, many years ago, to prepare his Will. Within this, Gordon wanted to bequest part of his estate to Masonic Charities and them to be directed by his own lodge as to where they were distributed. This, Richard explained, resulted in the magnificent cheque presented this evening, what’s more, leaving a lasting legacy from Gordon as in the lodge exceeding their Festival target well in advance.

At the festive board, before Eric’s response to his own toast, he was presented, to his surprise, a remarkable, life like, Caricature and Sunderland ‘legends’ Calendar. straight after that, he was also presented with all the proceeds of the raffle along with a £50 donation from the lodge funds, for the Masonic Fishing Charity.

Eric then replied, firstly putting on his ‘fishing’ cap to thank them, on behalf of the charity before congratulating Elvet lodge on a truly wonderful achievement on attaining their Platinum status.

John Thompson was then handed the reins, to present the Platinum badge to the lodge charity Steward, Ivan Lowther and give the Master, Michael Snowball, the prized certificate on attaining Platinum status.

The joviality continued throughout the rest of the festive board, culminating in Eric and the visiting grand lodge officer, David Grey winning the raffle. A great night and a very rewarding night for both Eric and Elvet lodge.

Silver Award presented to St. Cuthbert Lodge No. 3417

On Tuesday 7th November the APGM W Bro Stephen Walker attended St Cuthbert Lodge in Darlington for a Formal visit to the Lodge, whilst he was in attendance the Lodge made use of being able to present the APGM with a cheque for £3417, the Lodge number of St. Cuthbert towards the Durham 2021 Festival also included was £75 towards the TLC Teddies appeal.

This fantastic donation, totally unexpected by the APGM and the Festival team took the Lodge past the level for the Silver Award and as a well prepared APGM, W Bro Walker had a Silver Pin Badge in his possession and was able to present their Assistant Charity Steward Bro Malcolm Dunstone with the Silver Pin Badge.

Pictured above is the APGM W Bro Stephen Walker presenting the pin to the Assistant Charity Steward Bro Dunstone, with W Bro Nick Taylor, the Lodge current WM.

Lodge of Concord No. 6859

Silver Award

On Friday 6th October 2017 at the Installation meeting, Lodge of Concord No. 6859 became the fifth Lodge out of six at Queen Street East, Sunderland, to surpass 66% of the Durham 2021 Festival target.

In the Lodge room, the newly installed master, W Bro. William Telfer, handed over donations totalling £1100.00 to the AProvGM W Bro John David Watts, who was representing the RW Provincial Grand Master. At the festive board W Bro Watts spoke of how the Immediate Past Master, W Bro Gil Crossley Jnr, along with his wife Mrs. Nicky Crossley  had raised over £1400.00 in sponsorship by running the Great North Run. The sponsorship money together with the donation given in the Lodge Room meant that the Lodge had now qualified to receive the Silver Festival Award. W Bro. Watts then asked the Lodge Charity Stewart, WBro David Dorward to come forward to accept his Silver lapel badge.

Quest for Silver and Eric does a runner !

With over 50% of their members now continuously giving, Quest Lodge No. 7102 which meet in Seaham achieved their Silver Award on Tuesday 3rd October 2017. Hall Ambassador Malcolm Wilkinson presented the pin badge in open Lodge.

Quest’s Charity Steward, Eric Brodie, shown receiving the award, had incidentally, just completed the Great North Run as part of the Durham GNR team, raising over £1000 towards the Lodge total and more remarkably he had run a personal best by finishing 37,579th  ……just behind Mo!

Surtees Lodge No. 4593

Gold Award

gold lodge award

The date was Thursday 27th September 2017, the night the Brethren of the Surtees met at the Masonic Hall Shildon and received their Gold Award for the Durham 2021 Festival.

The Deputy Provincial Grand Master John Arthur was shocked and surprised when he was presented with a cheque of £12,340 for the Masonic Charitable Foundation which takes the Lodge from Bronze to Gold. The Lodge has now contributed £31,104 towards the Durham 2021 Festival

John Thompson, Festival Director then stood up and congratulated the Brethren of Surtees for the cheque before formally presented the Lodge with its Gold Pin Badge in recognition of the fact that they had now achieved their Festival target and acknowledged this as being an outstanding achievement.

This was followed by the presentation of a commemorative plaque, which was to be displayed at Lodge meetings. John was delighted to acknowledge the progress made on achieving progress to the Festival Target and stated that this was currently running at receipts of £10,000 per week.

John Thompson then presented Dale Kelly, Surtees Lodge Charity Steward with the Gold Lapel Pin. Dale then gave a short speech thanking not only Surtees Lodge members but members of all Shildon lodges for their great effort they have made, which received an excellent round of applause from the whole room.

A Great evening enjoyed by all.

Corinthian Lodge No. 5808

Silver Award

Bill Hobson has been busy this week, as area Director for the West he took a trip to Corinthian Lodge No. 5808 to present some well deserved achievement awards to acknowledge those brethren who have gone the extra mile for our Festival.
David Ross, Alan Townsend and Brian Clark, have been busy on the allotment this year and have been selling their produce in aid of the Durham 2021 Festival. Bill was very pleased to pass the certificates on to these green figured masons.
As Charity Steward Jamie Rielly received the Silver award Pin Badge on behalf of the Lodge and acknowledge and thanked the Lodge for their ongoing support.

Spirit of Rugby Lodge No. 9910 – Bronze Award

At the recent Spirit of Rugby Lodge Installation, in Chester le Street, Andrew Foster had the great pleasure in presenting Richard Hogg, the Lodge’s new Charity Steward with a Durham 2021 Festival Bronze Pin Badge in acknowledgement of the Lodge achieving 33% of its Festival target.

Andrew praised the Lodge and in particular, Kieran Fyland, for his hard work as the previous Charity Steward of the Lodge.  He highlighted, as many of the brethren are members of other Lodges, it’s no mean task in achieving this award.

Andrew is an honorary member of the Lodge and is a true Rugby man.  For twenty years he was Secretary of Darlington Rugby Club.

In Nov 2016 the PGM visited Agricola Lodge at the Installation to present his Provincial Grand Master’s Award which is given to a lodge who exceed their lodge target by 30%. In only 10 months Agricola Lodge has done this and some. The PGM was pleased to confer his first award to the WM and the Brethren of Agricola and hopes he has to do it many times again.

To read the full story of the evening http://www.durhamfreemasons.org/news-archive