Three days, two nights, turkey, tinsel and The Temple
 
31st October ~ 2nd November 2013
 
Thursday morning saw the start of a three day Masonic Sojourn, heading south down the M6 to the Staffordshire County Show Ground for the Provincial meeting of the Mark Province of Staffordshire and Shropshire.
An enjoyable meeting followed by an excellent Festive board, all spent in the company of our own PGM, Peter Connolly, and the Provincial Senior Warden, Giles Berkley. I felt very proud when the PGM of Staffordshire and Shropshire, RW Bro David Michael Edwards, publicly thanked me for the presentation of the Temple lecture given at Joseph Whittall Lodge of Installed Mark Masters No 1392 in Shrewsbury on 2nd September, at which he was present along with his Deputy and Assistant.
 
Following the Festive Board I travelled north, to Barrow-in-Furness, ready for Friday’s event which was the Consecration of a new Allied Masonic Degrees Council named after the current Grand Master, Thomas Firth Jackson, of which I am a Founder. An excellent Consecration ceremony was performed by Tom. The Primus Master of the Council, Paul Snape, was Installed by the District Grand Prefect, Bill Seddon. For his work as founding Secretary, the Grand Master promoted Stuart Leach to Past Grand Registrar, making him a Very Worshipful Brother. All the names mentioned you’ll know of course, as membership of the Mark is prerequisite for Membership of the Allied.
 
Following the Festive Board I headed east, first stop being Oxenholme station to collect Jeff Smith who had travelled by train from Poulton, then on to Scarborough. On arrival at the Royal Hotel we unloaded the big dolls house from my car and set up for the demonstration to be held the following morning in the Ball room. Then off to the bar for a snack and a drink; yes, water! Little did we know that the 1st November is the start of Christmas, really, so there were two singers and two dancers in the bar and we heard those memorable words
‘It’s Christmasssss…’
 
Saturday morning was the Annual Assembly of Royal Ark Mariners of North & East Yorkshire which I was honoured to attend. The PGM, RW Bro Eric Roy Gore-Brown, opened the Lodge and promoted eight Brethren to Provincial Royal Ark Mariner Grand Rank.
 

The Lodge was called off and Jeff and other Mark Master Masons were admitted, then Jeff and I presented the King Solomon’s Temple lecture. Those of you who have seen it may remember that at a certain point I present the WM with his wages, a Mark Token from Cleveleys Mark Lodge. I was quite shocked, then delighted, when the PGM after accepting his wages, presented me with mine, a Mark Token from the Province of North & East Yorkshire; I didn’t know the Province had its own token! Talking to him about this later I was told that a number of solid silver tokens had been produced in 2005 for the PGM to present to Brethren who had given exceptional service to the Province, mine being only the second to be presented outside of the Province.
 
Another excellent Festive Board then followed, which the ladies joined; beef though, not turkey.
 
After loading the car we set off home to be met with warning signs just before J24 on the M62; vehicle fire – motorway closed ahead. Fortunately we were just before the junction and managed to escape after a short delay. As we reached the bottom of the slip road we could see the incident was actually on the bridge, so back up the other side and away; only ten minutes lost.
 
Article courtesy of Jimmy Rogers