Fun and Laughter at Rose and Thistle
   
1st April 2015
 
The Mark Degree is a happy degree and this couldn’t have been demonstrated better than at the Installation Ceremony of Rose and Thistle Lodge at Pemberton when George Francis Fletcher continued in the Chair of Adoniram for a second year.
Visiting Masters with the Special Rep, Ken Alker
W.Bro. John Bicknell, Past Grand Steward, represented the Provincial Grand Master and he was accompanied by Ken Alker, the PGM’s Special Representative, Malcolm Currie and Dennis Houghton. Dennis incidentally will celebrate 50 years in Mark Masonry on 14th October, 2015, everyone looks forward to that special event. Bro Bicknell was also accompanied the Provincial Junior
WM with JW Arthur Petitt (L) and his SW Bill Dunn
Warden Tony Farrar, who was about to give the response in the risings when he was usurped by an over enthusiastic Provincial member of the Lodge to the amusement of all present.
Tony Farrar toasts the health the WM George Fletcher
John thanked the Lodge for it very warm welcome and for its outstanding generosity towards the charities and other causes. He also reminded everyone of the RAM and Mark demonstration by Grand Mark Lodge which would be taking place at Leyland on 29th April.
Prov JW Tony Farrar, Dennis Houghton, John Bicknell,
WM George Fletcher, Malcolm Currie and Ken Alker
There was great camaraderie in the Lodge and everyone thoroughly enjoyed both the work in the Lodge and at the festive board afterwards where W.Bro. Paul Ledson was on absolute top form as he kept the Brethren laughing with his usual little quips about this or that.
 
The Worshipful Master was joined by Masters from three other lodges, Rick Woolley from Red Rose Mark, Stuart Wilson from Westhoughton and Len Hart from Leigh Mark.
 
The Lodge is one of the oldest in the Province with an excellent pedigree being the daughter lodge of St. John TI of Bolton and its name reflects the settlement between the Mark Province of Lancashire and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland who had withdrawn from the area having set up several lodges in the county in the 1880s.
 
The Lodge gave £200 to WLM charity and £200 to the Hall Development Fund at Pemberton and an additional £124 for the Almoners/Charity Stewards fund. A very generous total of £524, from what is a relatively small lodge.
 
Article and Photographs Courtesy of Fred Lomax