The Marquis of Lorne Lodge No 1354 is a member of the Wigan and Leigh Group at Leigh Masonic Hall, it holds its annual Olde English Night in March. The Lodge has always done a reciprocal visit for many years for this particular event, that has existed between Marquis of Lorne Lodge and Makerfield Lodge No 2155.
Andrew Hardman, being the master of Marquis of Lorne Lodge, always puts the brethren at ease with his command of the gavel and humour. Along with senior warden James Beswick, junior warden Michael Howard, senior deacon Alan Holding and junior deacon John Holding, all produced a bit of amusement for the visitors in the opening of the lodge, in a competent yet unusual Marquis of Lorne Lodge style, making for a very well-rehearsed performance. Neil Wakes, the Inner guard, gave an excellent job of showing his competence and commitment, all under the watchful eye of the DC Aiden Murphy.
The lodge opened and went through all the preliminaries very swifty, with the intension of closing the lodge as quickly as possible so as to not keep the non-Masonic guests waiting for the commencement for the Olde English Night to start.
After the necessary lodge business, the lodge was then closed in peace and harmony with the usual speedy dash for the brethren to put away the lodge furniture to get to see those non-Masons awaiting to see plenty of fun and entertainment with lovely food and raffles that awaited them.
At the social board, it went to another level of amazement with just hilarious and joyful behaviour for all, the visitors must have thought is this what Masons do at these types of social events, singing and prizes for all, well yes, and why not?
Chris Garlick was the fines master with his whistle blowing constantly for things like; wrong tie worn, those who didn’t like black pudding and mustard, to using a mobile phone, all got 50p to £1 maximum fine. He loved to poke fun at everyone in an attempt get them to pay a fine. Along went the usual chaos of banter and laughter that always helps everybody enjoy the evening.
The lodge DC Aiden Murphy and John Harding played their guitars to get everyone singing, two of the songs being Dirty Olde Town and The Wild Rover, just hit the mark for a fabulous singalong by all as the evening run by itself with the tremendous help from Alan Harding who coaxed the audience with his usual coercive banter.
As always, Ray Unsworth did the raffles, this was an excellent way of generating money for the Leigh Masonic Hall building and various charities. There was a decent array of gifts to be won with the usual assortment of wine and spirits, and many other prize options including a new HD 34in television.
The total amount of monies from the event came in at £738 being raised for charities. All in all, it was a very enjoyable and productive evening.