The celebration of the 50th anniversary in Freemasonry of Carlton Catterall, a member of Atherton Lodge No 4488 based in Leigh, and is member of the Wigan and Leigh Group. The lodge brethren were delighted and certainly honoured on this occasion to have as its principal guest Assistant Provincial Grand Master Malcolm Bell, who was supported by Assistant to the Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies Bryan Cambidge. The WM was Mell Barnes and the lodge DC was David Hughes.
Carlton is one man who had committed himself to 50 years in such an area of life that is a wonderful and rare achievement, and to give many years of dedication to a Masonic lodge and group in Freemasonry in general, is no exception. And that is why Atherton Lodge held this celebration to this wonderful man. To celebrate 50 years of continuous service to the Craft and this Province, it was indeed a great honour, privilege and pleasure for Malcom to play a small part in those celebrations.
Carlton was born in 1941, at the maternity hospital in Bolton Lancashire, being born to very loving parents Harry and Jean, who ran the Post Office and general store on St Helens Road, Over Hulton, a place where he grew up with his younger brother Graham.
He had a very happy childhood, with great memories of getting into harmless mischief as all young children did, he also helped out a great deal with the family business. He attended Holton Saint Andrews Primary School, where he passed his 11 plus, which allowed him to go onto Leigh Grammar School. Although he was a bright lad preferring the manual skills and the practical subjects, it’s little wonder that he left when he was 16, going on to find work as an accountant at Walkden’s, before moving on to Johnson Lords, the cigarette wholesalers.
But as Clifton always wanted something else out of life, after having a word with his dad, his dad then had decided to take him to the Federation of Hairdressers where he managed to get an apprenticeship, one that took three years of hard work to achieve a very high standard in his profession, to eventually start his own business.
The business was very successful, with him entering several competitions, many of which he won, including becoming the second-best hairdresser in Scotland. He also competed in some fantastic venues including Belle Vue at Manchester, to the Winter Gardens at Blackpool, where we now hold our Provincial meetings. As a result of his success, he then moved to bigger premises, eventually selling up in 2014. He was far too young to fully retire, so he started working a couple of days a week with Jonathan Wilson a good friend of his at his shop in Atherton, before fully retiring at the age of 78.
One of Carlton’s main passions in life, was that he is held since being a young child, is his love of Bolton Wanderers Football Club, even watching them live at Wembley in 1958, when they played and beat Manchester United in the FA Cup. He is still a current season ticket holder, with his seat being in the west upper stand, admitting that he finds the stairs hard to get up these days.
Carlton loves his holidays, his first main holiday was on his honeymoon with Barbara travelling to Switzerland, but he also visited Spain, Italy, France, Majorca, Tenerife and Madeira to name but a few, also enjoying his cruises travelling all over the Baltic, he visited Russia, Estonia, Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
His 50-year journey in Freemasonry began, in1976, when Carlton was initiated into Atherton Lodge, after his proposer Joe Roland, who was the head master of St Paul’s School, had a chat with him. He obviously knew about Freemasonry as his dad was a Freemason, meeting in Amity Lodge No 3904. Carlton was eventually raised to the sublime degree of a master Mason. He took an active part in the lodge, going into the chair of King Solomon, to holding his ladies evening at Leigh Masonic Hall where he had over 200 people attending, taking out a savings plan as he had over 40 guests.
He was rightly recognised with his appointment to Provincial grand rank, he was also a member of the Royal Arch, joining Atherton Chapter No 4488 in 1978. In all this it was like the brethren where hypnotised as his life story was read by Malcolm. The lodge finally went through all the preliminaries to eventually being closed in peace and harmony.
The social board was a spectacle in its own right all under the very competent role of the Assistant to the Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies Bryan Cambidge. Malcolm gave wonderful praise to Carlton and members of Atherton Lodge in their supporting roles for such a wonderful ceremony. Garry Bryon, the group deputy chairman expressed his gratitude, also thanking all the brethren on behalf of the group. The meeting was eventually closed with the brethren so happy to meet and chat with the usual catch-up.