An enjoyable and remarkable evening was had by all at the installation of Westhoughton Lodge No 4215, which yielded the formation of a new Hall Officials Lodge.
The evening did not start well due to severe traffic conditions around Brookfield resulting in the delayed arrival of over half of the attendees including the current WM Richard O’Connell and this evening’s representative, Assistant Provincial Grand Master Barry Jameson.
Despite missing a handful of main brethren, it did not deter the brethren from starting on time, with multiple stand-in officers taking the floor to help out until everyone did eventually arrive. The lodge was opened by stand-in WM and guest Les Kirk who was very pleased to welcome everyone including Barry who arrived just in time to process into the lodge accompanied by Frank Wilkinson.
Last year the lodge had celebrated its 100-year anniversary, but it has struggled in recent years with a declining membership and had even tried moving its meeting to a lunchtime start but this had not been successful in attracting the new members hoped for. The decision was therefore taken to hand over the lodge warrant to members of the hall support group who wanted to form a new Hall Officials Lodge for anyone involved in the running of their Masonic halls.
This new lodge would span both East and West Lancashire, with the hope that the lodge would become a valuable way of officials getting together and sharing information on the best practice for running our valuable Masonic homes.
12 new joining members were accepted into the lodge before Paul Heathcote, of the Hall Support Group was invited to take the masters chair and install a new team of officers. The original members of Westhoughton Lodge were all offered honorary membership which most accepted whilst others decided to remain as full subscribing members of the new repurposed lodge.
Chris Maloney was installed as WM and he then proceed to install his team of officers which included Stuart Wilson, one of the original lodge members as almoner so that he could continue to look after the existing lodge widows.
The meeting was followed by an excellent festive board where fond memories of the lodge were shared over an excellent meal served by the chef and staff at Brookfield Hall.
The new lodge will meet four times per year, holding its installation meeting at Brookfield in October and then moving around the two provinces to try generating interest and attract new members.
Anyone involved in running their Masonic hall is invited to attend, no matter what capacity they are involved, whilst anyone who would be interested in joining should make an enquiry to the new lodge secretary; Paul Heathcote at paul.w.heathcote@btinternet.com.