The Kop Hill Climb Festival, Princes Risborough, celebrated its 10th year since being reinstated as an historic car event on the weekend of 21st/22nd September 2019, and I was fortunate in being invited to exhibit my classic car on the Buckinghamshire Provincial Grand Lodge stand along with other members and their cars of the Bucks Classic Car Lodge.
This was the third consecutive year that Bucks PGL have had a stand there, known as the Star Tent, and the Brethren manning the tent attracted a tremendous amount of interest and signed up 72 potential new members, including two prospective Lady Freemasons. There were also over 100 entries for the free hamper draw, with the winner being a prospective joiner from Maidenhead.
W. Bro. Andy Sutton and his team worked tirelessly setting up and manning the event over the weekend with Harry Holloway and Paul Williams on night-watch duty, assisting with the security of the stand over the two consecutive nights.
I have been a Bucks Freemason for over 37 years and have seen a great deal of change in Freemasonry over that period. But I found the experience at Kop Hill was an exciting new approach to Freemasonry, combining the diverse interest many of us have in all things mechanical with the camaraderie provided by Freemasonry. This must be the way forward in attracting new members to Freemasonry, by providing specialist lodges as Buckinghamshire has done with the Classic Car Lodge, the Motorcycle Lodge and the Nomadic Lodge (motorhome, caravan and camping).
The Saturday of the Kop Hill Climb weekend actually coincided with the date of our meeting for the Bucks Classic Car Lodge, so it was decided to combine the two with an Al Fresco White Table afterwards. After obtaining the necessary dispensation, we held our Lodge meeting at the close of the show in the Star Tent, closed off to the public and our waiting wives, families and friends outside.
The Worshipful Master R.W. Bro. John Clark, ProvGM, presided over this brief but enjoyable meeting; in fact it was the shortest meeting I have ever attended lasting only eight minutes! Is this a record?
Thanks must go to the AsstProvGM, W. Bro. Tony Robinson for his gastronomic skills on the barbecue and also to his lovely wife Jean who assisted him over the two days and provided us all with plentiful amounts of tea and coffee.
To summarise, it was an exciting and invigorating boost to my Masonic experience combined with attracting a great deal of interest for potential new Freemasons.
W. Bro. Ian Hussey
Bucks Classic Car Lodge 9945