A Night for the Ladies

North Harrow President W.Bro Terry Clayfield and his family

Over 100 people attended North Harrow Lodge's Annual Ladies' Night which was held at the Bellhouse hotel in Beaconsfield.
We hold one of these events every year, it is an opportunity to say thank you to our "loved one" for allowing us out on the numerous evenings throughout the year doing our Freemasonry stuff.

WBro Breen (front right) with his guests

It was an evening of excellent food, company, music and dancing until the early hours and a chance for us all to get together for a great time.

WBro Harris-Cooksley
& Rena

https://picasaweb.google.com/104638823856542780355/NorthHarrowLadiesNight2012

What North Harrow Lodge do for Charities

W.Bro Derek Biddle (left) W.M 2011

Another thing North Harrow Lodge and Freemasons in general do well is supporting Local Charities, Each year the Lodge has what's called a "Master's List" where the Master nominates a charity that the Lodge will support during his year in office. Over the last couple of years the nominated Charities that Noth Harrow Lodge have been supporting are the Teenage Cancer Trust and the National Society for Epilepsy. Last month we had the pleasure of presenting cheques for £900 to each of the Charities.



W.Bro. Andy Watterston (left) W.M 2010

Summer break for Masonry



Now that the summer is upon us, most Lodges close for the two months of July and August, however, work still goes on behind the scenes for Lodge secretaries. I've just applied to UGLE for a Grand Lodge Certificate for one of our brethren who was raised to the degree of a Master Mason earlier this month so that I can present it to him at our Installation meeting on Friday the 12th October (visitors are most welcome). Also at this meeting we will be appointing and investing lay brethren to ALL our junior offices, and have six appointed as stewards, this is the first time we have been able to do this in many years. This is testament to the quality of our new candidates, two of whom are pictured below ! May it continue !!!

W.Bro Terry Clayfield (centre) with our 2 recent initiates Bro Aamir Khan (left) and Bro Howard Cheng (right)



Introducing New Candidates

Last week I was able to put the first part of our Initiative into action by organising ceremonies for five of our members with other Lodges over the next few months.Today, I have been able to put the second part into action.
Having received 2 completed Registration Forms from prospective candidates, who initially wanted to join North Harrow Lodge and because we would not be able to initiate them until 2014 , we have agreed to introduce them to 2 other Lodges that are short of members and have no work.
As part of this initiative we would then support them by attending the donor Lodge when they progress through their respective ceremonies.
I'm just waiting for the Lodges to reply to my offer .... I bet it's a resounding YES PLEASE !!
That's something else Freemasonry is good at !!! Sharing

The Battle Proms at Hatfield House

Another first for North Harrow was to attend the Battle Proms at Hatfield House on the 21st July! Lodge members and prospective members with their partners were blessed with glorious weather and enjoyed great food, wine and fellowship and a spectacular display by  the "Blades" aerial acrobatic team and stunts by a SuperMarine Spitfire, finishing with Cannons and fireworks and of course "Land of Hope & Glory". A fantastic afternoon and evening. Many thanks go to W.Bro.David Russell for organising the tickets for us (pictured  in his working capacity as Operations Manager) its a hard life at Hatfield House.
https://picasaweb.google.com/114122000538313893771/BattlePromsAtHatfieldHouse2012

Our growing membership

Mainly due to our website http://www.NorthHarrowLodge.org we have recruited 19 new members in as many months. This is unheard of in Freemasonry in general . So it shows that social media does work! It has also breathed new life into our Lodge. Pictured below a few of our recent initiates


From L-R . Bro Bhatia, Bro Kotecha, Bro Flood, W.Bro Harris-Cooksley (Sec), Bro Thomas, Bro Shah, Bro Flood.

Flying the flag for Freemasonry

It was quite surprising how many people noticed the square and compass flag we were flying when we were moored in Yarmouth on the I.o.W and at Portsmouth and came over for a chat. We were proud to fly the flag for freemasonry.


The Crew of (muggles) Masons aboard "Dumbledore" in the Sloent

Freemasons went Sailing the Solent

It's not all work and no play being a member of North Harrow Lodge, a few weeks ago, 6 of us chartered "Dumbledore" a 37' yacht and sailed along the Solent for 4 days and lived to tell the tales of  high winds and 6ft waves ! (well almost). Great fun was had by all! Just waiting for the next one, possibly in September, watch this space
Click on the link below for more pictures of the trip
https://picasaweb.google.com/114122000538313893771/Solent2012


From L-R  WBro Andy Watterston, WBro David Russell, Bro Rimal Shah,WBro Derek Biddle, WBro Vaughan Coleridge Matthews (Skipper), W.Bro Nigel Harris-Cooksley

Charity Donation to the London Air Ambulance

W.Bro. Roger Croome, the Pro Provincial Grand Master of Middlesex, had the pleasure of presenting a cheque for £2000 to the London Air Ambulance at the Middlesex Family Fete on the 15th July!! That's what we do well!!

Our New Initiative

Because of the success of our website in recruiting and introducing new members to Freemasonry, we have decided to share our work around other Lodges in Middlesex area.
Over the last few weeks I have been able to allocate ceremonies to 5 Lodges, who have no work, for their meetings before Christmas and would hope to continue this well into the New Year.
We have also started an initiative to introduce any new candidate obtained through the website  to another Lodge in Middlesex who is not doing as well as us.
This is because the earliest we could take another initiate into North Harrow is 2014 and it would not be reasonable to ask a candidate to wait 18 months to join.
As the first point of contact for any prospective candidate, we have decided that we will support and mentor him through his progress in Freemasonry from the introduction to another Lodge to being present at his ceremonies.
This initiative will not only give a welcome boost to membership in Middlesex, but will swell the guest numbers at the meetings of the Lodges concerned.
For further details visit our Website  http://www.NorthHarrowLodge.org

Middlesex Family Fete

On Sunday the 15th July we ran the BBQ stall at the Middlesex Provincial Grand Family Fete which was held at the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth. After all the rain over the previous few weeks and months the day stayed rain free.
Hundreds of people turned up to wonder around the 70 stalls and get involved in the events that were taking place throughout the day.
For the members of North Harrow Lodge  it was a very busy day, selling hundreds of Bacon Butties, burgers, hot dogs and kebabs over the course of the day. It was a culmination of hard work and great teamwork that enabled us to donate the proceeds to the Charity, which amounted to a record breaking £1000.

North Harrow Lodge has arrived

This is my first and newest venture into the blogging world, so please bare with me as I try and give an insight of what is going on in the life of a Harrow Freemason  and North Harropw Lodge no.6557 in particular and Middlesex Freemasonry in general.
You can also visit our website on  http://www.NorthHarrowLodge.org