Benevolent Association

Ever Mindful of Others

Hungerford Blogger

Our late Chaplain, Nigel Ludlow, regularly used a grace which included the reminder that we should be ever mindful of the needs of others. It is important that we as men, and as Freemasons, remember that whilst we have plenty, there but for the Grace of the Supreme Being, go us. (Freemasonry accepts men of all faiths and uses terms such as Supreme Being to denote the deity according to the faith of the individual.)

To this end, the members of the Hungerford Lodge donated £550 to the Loose Ends charity in Newbury. Regular readers of this blog will recall that we were previously able to give £250 in 2018. We keep in contact with the charities that we help to see how the funds that we provide are used and to understand what other help might be required or that we can provide.

Gilbert Mills with the team at Loose Ends Newbury

Loose Ends provides an invaluable service to our local community. They operate a well established drop in centre at Morton Hall, Newbury Baptist Church which is in Cheap Street near to the Rail station. They can be reached via their email address admin@looseendsnewbury.org or via Facebook looseendsnewbury or by phone at 07444 324686

Originally opened by Richard Westall in May 1990 on a one year trial basis, they have now been in operation for nearly 30 years. They originally met only on a Sunday for a sandwich lunch. By request, this then became a cooked lunch further down the line. Within a couple of years, Loose Ends was opening on a Wednesday and then Friday. Five years ago they started serving lunch on Monday and Tuesday and they now operate five days a week.

Loose Ends are raising additional funding in the coming months to finance planned upgrades to their existing facilities at Morton Hall – in particular, some of their furniture and catering equipment is reaching the end of their useful life.

They have also been informed by Newbury Baptist Church that they hope to redevelop the current site and that Loose Ends may need to find a new location in Newbury. As a result, they need to reserve additional funds in case they need to finance moving costs, costs of new premises and development of these premises to accommodate their future needs.

If you are interested in helping Loose Ends with your time or by making a donation, they would love to hear from you.

Hungerford Lodge members make regular donations to the Hungerford Lodge Benevolent Association which then assists local and national charities as well as other good causes with support. This website contains lots of useful information regarding the Hungerford Lodge and Freemasonry more widely. If you think this might be for you, please contacts us.

Mark takes the helm

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The new team – Mark and Jeremy are second and third from the left kneeling

Tuesday 15th November saw Mark Wiltshire installed as the Master or leader of the Hungerford Lodge by Jeremy Dickins. Jeremy has been a real asset to the Lodge over the last year. He has worked hard at the ceremonies and has been just as diligent with the administrative side of the Lodge. Jeremy thanked his team for their support over the previous year before installing his successor in the time-honoured manner. Mark then appointed his team for the coming year, demonstrating how capable he is at memorising and reciting the ritual whilst at the same time displaying a sense of humour and a deftness of touch.

Once the ceremonial part of the evening was over, the members and guests retired to the Newbury Royal British Legion (RBL) Club for a celebratory meal. In all, 88 people sat down to dine on tomato soup, roast beef and all the trimmings, followed by a cheese board. The buzz of excitement for the evening had been building over the last few weeks and the atmosphere at the meal was electric. Masons had travelled from near and far to witness the changing of the guard as it is always a special event in a Lodge’s calendar.

Mark is part of the Provincial Outreach team and most, if not all, of the team had turned out to support their colleague. The Outreach team runs Open Days at each of the Masonic Centres throughout Berkshire with a view to making Freemasonry more accessible to the public and dispelling some of the myths propagated by the national media. The team had recently opened the Newbury Masonic Centre for one such event as part of the Remembrance Day activities in Newbury.

Supporting the Poppy Appeal
Supporting the Poppy Appeal

Once the meal was over the raffle was drawn with some splendid prizes available. The generosity of those attending meant that £500 was raised by the raffle and a further £180 was collected for alms. Mark consulted with his team and they decided to present a donation of £250 to the RBL Poppy Appeal on behalf of the Lodge. The remainder was donated the Lodge Benevolent Association for future charitable works. The RBL team were extremely grateful for the generosity.

A traditional part of the celebrations at the Installation of a new Master, is the singing of The Master’s Song. This is a combination of solo and participatory singing. Those who have been the recipient, know this is a very emotional moment for the new Master. One of Mark’s close friends, Graham Reynolds had jokingly offered to sing the Master’s Song for Mark at his installation. Mark was delighted by this offer and held his friend to this commitment. Graham’s skills as a Heating (not cooling) Engineer are more in demand than his singing skills and he was a touch out of practice. This added to the fun of the evening.

The Deputy Provincial Grand Master (deputy leader for Berkshire Masons) Anthony Howlett-Bolton was on hand to witness the event along with his retinue and they left having thoroughly enjoyed the evening.