Within the Gladstone Group, St Nicholas Lodge No 3620, is fondly known as St Nicks Lodge. The lodge, which has a long history having celebrated its centenary in 2012, shares its name with many other distinguished lodges.
An internet search revealed that the lodge name of St Nicholas may be the Masonic equivalent of the favourite name for a public house ‘The Red Lion’. With over nine lodges found so far, with the oldest being St Nicholas University Lodge No 93 in the province of Aberdeenshire, founded in 1763, and the newest being St Nicholas Lodge No 6658, founded in 1948, in the province of Hertfordshire. A potential excuse for a ‘visit’ must be to St Nicholas Lodge No 1676, who have moved to the Gosforth Hotel, Newcastle and rebranded themselves as a ‘Craft Real Ale Lodge’.
It is thought that the lodge is named after a small stone chapel erected in Liverpool, St Mary del Quay, which later became known as Our Lady and St Nicholas, which itself has stood in the same spot since 1250. St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and merchants, with obvious links to the port of Liverpool.
An installation meeting of any lodge is always a team event, and the ‘team’ turned out in force. The lodge meets in the Britannia Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, and warmly greeted members and guests alike at the door of the lodge.
Master of the lodge George Anderson opened the lodge in fine form and was assisted by his senior and junior wardens, Gary Nicholson and John Jackson respectively. George then requested Malcolm Sandywell, member of Stanley of Bickerstaffe Lodge No 3511, occupy the chair of King Solomon for the next part of the ceremony. That was the cue for lodge director of ceremonies Geoff Bell to retire, and then return to the lodge to announce that the principal guest, Sam Robinson representative of the Provincial Grand Master Mark Matthews stood without and requested admission.
Having declared that the lodge would be honoured to receive him, a procession then made its way into the lodge, consisting of Provincial Grand Steward Mike Fox, accompanied by Gladstone Group Visiting Officer Rob Burgess, Provincial Grand Mentor Stewart Cranage, grand officer Malcolm Alexander and principal guest Sam Robinson.
The necessary salutations having been attended to, WM Malcolm, requested Stewart Cranage to honour the lodge and occupy the junior warden’s chair. William Griffiths, who standing in for junior deacon, collected master elect John Jackson and presented him to Malcolm for the benefit of installation.
John, having answered the necessary questions, made his way to the pedestal and recited his obligation in due form. Malcolm then proceeded to install John into the chair of King Solomon in very fine fashion and it is patently obvious that Malcolm is a master of his Craft.
Having led the salutation to a newly installed WM and closed the board of installed masters, Malcolm called for the admission of master Masons, three volunteers made up of Geoff Bell, Mike Fox and William Griffiths answered the call. At the conclusion of the salutations of that degree, Geoff Bell delivered an exemplary delivery of the working tools of a master Mason. The lodge being closed in the third degree and labour resumed in the second, resulted in the volunteers performing the salutation to a new master in the second degree, with lodge secretary Colin Cleary delivering the working tools of a fellow craft Freemason.
Finally, having resumed labour in the first degree and salutations attended to again by the volunteers, the working tools of an entered apprentice were delivered in very fine form by Stewart Cranage. Swiftly followed by the address to the master by Geoff Bell, with Malcolm Sandywell requesting that the wardens be upstanding and he delivered an exemplary address to the wardens.
Principal guest, Sam Robinson, having rounded off a fine display of ritual with the address to the brethren of the lodge. Following which, at the conclusion of the installation ceremony, he rose again and congratulated WM John on an impressive installation ceremony and thanked Geoff, Malcolm and George, and indeed all the brethren and visitors who had helped and made it a ‘team’ effort.
WM John then presented cheques to honour the charities to Sam, who having asked for permission to read the contents out aloud, explained to all present, that the lodge had donated £200 to West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity, £200 to The Tithebarn and a very timely donation of £200 to Zoe’s Place following their appeal to raise much needed funds. Sam congratulated the lodge on having raised such an amazing sum of money for charity.
The celebration of the installation of new master John continued over dinner, in the surroundings of the Crompton’s Restaurant, where the diners were treated to a veritable delight of seafood chowder, braised pork in velouté sauce and a croquembouche of profiteroles. It is not known if the chef is a fan of MasterChef, but if so, they are in contention!
At dinner, installing master George Anderson led the toast to newly installed WM John, with a heartfelt toast. In return, John, praised George for the way he has conducted his mastership and presented George with the lodge past master’s jewel, which is a very fine example in 22 carat gold and a lodge heirloom.
John mentioned how proud he was to become WM of St Nicholas Lodge, and explained how he had remembered the same feeling when he was installed as WM of Empire Lodge No 3257 by his father, John Jackson, some years before. Returning the favour to his father sometime later by installing him into the chair of what became Trinity Lodge No 3257, following the amalgamation of Empire Lodge, Royal George Lodge No 4119 and Mossley Hill Lodge No 7963 in 2005.
After John was very warmly congratulated, senior warden Gary Nicholson then approached and presented John with a presentation box containing a set of lodge centenary cufflinks and a pin-badge. These were commissioned to celebrate the lodge centenary in 2012, depicting the lodge name and number with an enamel picture of the church tower of St Nicholas. John thanked Gary for his very kind presentation and said he would proudly wear those to the next meeting.
As all things must come to an end, John presented principal guest Sam Robinson, with flowers and wine, and thanked Sam for his attendance, and the principal guests retired for the evening. Everyone is now looking forward to hearing more from this fine lodge, and with a 60th celebration in hand for William Gilpin in the New Year, all look forward to attending again.