Hartington Lodge 1085

Last night our IPM and newest member of The Lodge attended Royal Sussex Lodge at Burton-On-Trent, Derbyshire for an interesting night of Freemasonry.

Excellent Companions Graeme Hutchinson – Deputy Grand Superintendent for Derbyshire and Excellent Companion Tony Harvey gave a very interesting talk on why members of the Craft should complete their journey in Pure Ancient Freemasonry. All who attended found the presentation both interesting and enjoyable and allowed the Brethren to discover that indissoluble link between the two degrees.

Afterwards the 70 attendees sat down for the Festive Board where we were entertained by a brass band playing Christmas Carols.

It was a great night for Derbyshire Freemasonry.

Wednesday night was the Worshipful Masters, Christmas Ladies do, which was well supported and enjoyed by all who attended.

The evening had a slight Russian twist, which featured Vodka and lots of it, followed by Caviar canapés and a sit down meal.

Today saw the start of the countdown to Christmas, with the Provincial Carol Service at Derby Cathedral

This was attended by many Brethren, their families and friends and a lovely afternoon was had by all in attendance.

The photos were taken prior to the service, before the Cathedral had filled up.

Wednesday 25th April was a special night for Derbyshire Freemasonry and a special night for Spencer Lodge in particular.
It was their annual St George’s Day Meeting, their 41st St George’s Day Meeting to be precise. The Lodge being consecrated on St George’s Day, it’s always close to Spencer Lodges heart.
Present were two of their founding members.
The Ceremony was a Second Degree which was carried out by Past Masters of the Lodge.
An excellent evening was had by all who attended both during the Ceremony and at the Festive Board.

On Friday night our Immediate Past Master, decided not to drink wine in the sunshine and chose to lick himself indoors and visit Cantelupe Lodge instead.
It was an Initiation, and the Candidate was actually the nephew of the Senior Deacon.
The Lodge had obviously put a lot of hard work into practicing the Ceremony as there was some excellent ritual, some of which was from some of the junior Brethren.
A great night for Derbyshire Freemasonry and a great night for our IPM who bumped into one of his old school friends.

Our Worshipful Master, visited Byron Lodge over at Mansfield on Thursday 5th April.
Here he witnessed a double Initiation, with one of the candidates being Initiated by his Dad. He had an excellent night and did the Visitors Response for the first time at the Festive Board.

(L to R)
Hartington WM, 1st Initiate, 2nd Initiate and the 2nd Initiates Father.

The first Wednesday in April saw a break in tradition for Hartington Lodge, having just a short business meeting starting at 18:00 instead of the usual 18:15.
The reason for this was to make way for a special meeting of Cornucopia Lodge, where a Lecture was presented to the Derbyshire Brethren on Prostate cancer.
The blood bikes were also present who carry out a very worthy cause of transporting blood around the Province.

Derbyshire Lodge of Installed Masters met on Wednesday evening for the first official presentation of the Prestonian Lecture 2018.
The Lecture was both informative and entertaining and a number of the Brethren present showed interest in writing the sequel to it……..watch this space!
Three new members joined the Lodge and I think six more were proposed! All in all it was a great night for Derbyshire Freemasonry in general, but more importantly the Derbyshire Lodge of a Installed Masters in particular.
There were a number of people present including the Provincial Grand Master, Assistant Grand Master, three Prestonian Lecturers, present and past, and ten Association of Tercentenary Masters.

The picture above shows the three Prestonian Lecturers.

This picture shows the three Prestonian Lecturers as well as ten Association of Tercentenary Masters.

Four Past Masters of Hartington Lodge, ventured out in the cold to receive a warm welcome at Liversage Lodge.
Here they heard a very informative talk with a Naval theme, something our IPM found very interesting having spent some of his working career in this area.
We were all made to feel most welcome at the Festive Board too, which again had a fishy twist!

On Wednesday 14th March our Immediate Past Master made his first visit to Tutbury Priory Lodge 4873, where he saw one of his fellow Association of Tercentenary Masters Raise his Lecturer from College to the Third Degree!
There was some excellent Ritual carried out by the Officers who took part, making it such a memorable experience for Brother Charlie.
The visitors all thoroughly enjoyed themselves!