Berkeley Lodge is a very friendly Lodge of about 25 members, coming from a wide range of backgrounds of Professions, Trades and Businesses. Ages range from 20s & 30s through to long standing senior members in their 70s+ and many in between. So our social connections are very strong and wide ranging with members from all over the world.
We meet four times a year, on the 4th Thursday of – November (installation of the Master), January, March and May. We usually start a meeting at 5.00pm. After the formal part of the evening, we have a Festive Board of a two or three course meal, within the masonic centre. With plenty of wine and chat plus meeting in the bar, there is lots of socialising. The meeting usually finishes by 10.00pm but can go on longer in the bar, often meeting other masons from other lodges in the same centre.
Berkeley Lodge was consecrated on 23rd June 1958, at a time when Masonry was thriving. In many lodges it was not unusual for a new mason to have a long wait before he would be installed as Master. In order to avoid such a wait, 31 Founders drawn mainly from Westfield, Osterley and Syon Lodges formed a new lodge. With the permission of the Earl of Berkeley, the new Lodge was allowed to take his family name which had a close connection with the area of London that many of the Founders came from. The first Master was W.Bro. Jack Scrivens, with W.Bro. Walter Davey and W.Bro. Charles Ashby as his wardens.
After the consecration meeting, the lodge began its expansion with a programme of initiations, with double ceremonies at the second, fourth and seventh meetings. At the May 1959 meeting W.Bro. Walter Davey presented a Loving Cup to be used on Installation Nights and other special occasions. At an emergency meeting on 14th September 1961 the Lodge Banner, which had been presented by Bro. Bill Ashby, was dedicated.
In its over sixty years of existence, the lodge has prided itself on the quality of its ritual and the friendliness and banter, which continues to today.
The 2020 decade presents a different challenge to that which the Lodge was brought in to in 1958. The pressures that young men generally are under has had a considerable effect on the Craft as a whole, an effect to which this lodge has not been immune. The future is not clear but whatever the fortunes of the Lodge, we will ensure that Berkeley Lodge and the Spirit, will continue.
