New Urban Lodge arrives in Buckinghamshire
Assistant Provincial Grand Master John Clark and the Talking Heads team attended a meeting of New Urban Lodge on the 26th March 2015 when the Lodge's Loving Cup was delivered back to them after being missing for 31 years.
New Urban have now been at the Eliot Hall, Winslow in the Province of Buckinghamshire for 14 months and I felt it would be a good time to explain to our newer members and our visitors a small part of our history.
Our Mother Lodge, The Urban Lodge 1196, was founded in 1867 it was a big Lodge so progressing to the chair was slow, often 14/15 years. Early in 1946 a few members got together to discuss forming a new Lodge which after much discussion and organising was Consecrated in January 1947 at Great Queen Street. The name of the new lodge was New Urban No. 6371 it held it’s meetings at the Piccadilly Hotel W1 and met there for 37 years holding their meetings and Ladies Nights but unfortunately in 1984 the Piccadilly Hotel decided it would do away with its Masonic suite and replace it with a gym and leisure facility.
The Lodge held one meeting at the Lancaster Gate Hotel, Lancaster Gate, which unfortunately was a disaster, the next meeting was held at Park Court Hotel also in Lancaster Gate where they were well received and remained for the next 16 years. In the year 2000 the number of people using gym and leisure facilities was increasing and New Urban found itself homeless again for the same reason.
We then moved to the WLMC in Ealing where we continued to meet until 2014, the main reason for moving from Ealing was that we were suffering with low numbers and only a couple of guests and we felt that handing in our warrant was getting ever closer.
However settling in Winslow has helped our meetings greatly especially our number of guests.
In the life of the lodge there have been many nice memories but reading through old minutes, records etc. two items stick out in our history.
As I said the Lodge was formed in 1947 and the first W.M was W. Bro. Fredrick Roberts whose daughter Stella Pannell still takes a keen interest in the Lodge, her husband Gordon played a major part in our history and was master in 1960 and 1996 which was our 50th anniversary, in 1997 he suffered a bad stoke while investing his successor into the chair and only survived that night thanks to the prompt action of W. Bro. B. Woodward but sadly passed to the Grand Lodge above in September 2013.
The second and third masters were Brothers George and Wilfred Reed who were actually blood brothers.
In 1950 when the fourth W. Master W. Bro. R. Knight was installed the three previous Masters purchased a cup to commemorate their time in the chair and presented it to the Lodge, this cup was known as the loving cup. At the January meeting each year to commemorate the consecration and to remember the Founders, a ritual took place at the festive board, the cup was passed round filled with wine and each brother took a drink from the cup with another brother guarding their back.
Unfortunately during the move from the Piccadilly in 1984 the cup went missing, no one knew if it was mislaid or stolen but it was definitely gone, a claim was made on the insurance and the replacement purchased, the tradition then continued until only a few years ago when it faded out mainly due to concern about passing on germs etc. but we still have the cup.
Another notable presentation was in 1951 when W. Bro. P. Rootes donated the banner to the Lodge, it was dedicated on May 2nd 1951 by V.W Bro. Moffett Past Grand Chaplain, it was a very well attended, memorable meeting and the banner has been displayed at every meeting since that day.
That Brethren is a brief glance at our Lodge History now let me bring you back to the present.
A few weeks ago a good friend of mine well known in the northern part of the Province W. Bro. Roger Perry sent me an email advising me to look on eBay, as there was an item he felt sure I would be interested in, he gave me an item reference number, I did as instructed because he is a Grand Officer and they have to be obeyed, he was correct, I was interested and I would like to thank him for that.
Being no good with eBay I turned to my Son in Law who is a wiz on the auction site and although working in Malaysia at the time, quickly got on the case, done the bidding and purchased the item.
Brethren at the start of this short presentation I placed a jewel on this box, that was a complete Red Herring and I apologies for the deceit, it is a very nice Chapter Jewel but nothing to do with this presentation.
BRETHREN OF THE NEW URBAN LODGE 65 YEARS AGO IN 1950 THE LOVING CUP WAS PRESENTED TO THE LODGE AFTER BEING MISSING FOR 31 YEARS I GIVE YOU THE RETURN OF OUR ORIGINAL LOVING CUP.
Nothing now remains but for me to assure you that I have sincerely thanked W. Bro Roger Perry for finding it and Bro. David Buckle for doing the bidding and making sure it returned home, Bro David Buckle has purchased it and insists that he doesn’t want the money that he paid for it so I have thanked him for that and I am sure the Brethren will thank him next time we see him at Lodge.
Dave Heasman
Secretary