Over the years, the oak tree has come to be seen as a symbol of strength and longevity evolved, and as such it came to be associated with important life milestones, such as an 80th birthday.
Today, giving the gift of oak on an 80th celebration is a way to honour the recipient’s resilience, wisdom, and enduring strength.
And so it is with the lodge as we celebrate 80 years since our consecration, and the Staple Hill Oak proudly adorned on our lodge banner.
Unfortunately the lasting peace that was hoped for at the end of the Second World War has not come to pass, but the lodge has certainly fulfilled its objectives set out by the Consecrating Officer and Provincial Chaplain all those years ago.
The minutes from the consecration ceremony can be read here.
The Consecration
The Summons was issued on 12th April and the meeting took place on the 28th April 1945.
The Consecrating Officer was R W Bro Capt F K Foster, OBE JP PGD(Eng), the Provincial Grand Master for Gloucester, assisted by W Bro Capt The Hon W RS Bathurst TD MA SGD(Eng), the Deputy Provincial Grand Master.
There were also present thirteen Provincial Grand Officers from Gloucestershire, the Provincial Grand Master for Bristol, R W Bro Powell PGD(Eng) and his Deputy W Bro G Tyron PGD(Eng), all 36 Founder Members and 55 visitors representing 17 Lodges.
The unusual attendance by the Provincial Grand Master of another Province was occasioned by some of the Bristol Lodges having held their meetings in the Downend Temple for the war period after the Temple in Park Street had been destroyed by bombing.
Amongst the visitors was a representative from our ‘Great Grandmother’ Lodge, The Royal Clarence Lodge, W Bro G W Gilmore from Kingswood Chase Lodge and W Bro (then Bro) E C J Kendall who 50 years later in 1995 during our half century appeared to be the last surviving Brother who attended the Consecration.
It is of interest that W Bro C F Winstone, PPrJGD, from Royal Edward Lodge No 4140 was also a visitor and that his son, W Bro M F Winstone, as Provincial Senior Grand Warden of Gloucestershire represented the Provincial Grand Master at the Installation in 1994 of W Bro S L Parker, the 50th Master of the Staple Hill Lodge.
That evening had any Brother not stayed to enjoy the dinner of Soup, Poultry and Trifle, he could have attended any one of the 31 cinemas or 4 professional theatres open in Bristol. (This may be compared with 5 cinemas and 2 theatres in existence in our Jubilee Year.)
At the ‘Hippodrome’, Vivien Leigh and Cecil Parker were appearing in ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’, alternatively our erring Brother could have gone to the ‘Empire’ in Old Market Street to see ‘The Gondoliers’.
One shilling (5p) would have gained admission to either of these performances!
Locally at the Kingswood Church Hall there was an ‘Aid to Russia Ball’ admission 2/6d (12½p) although at the Ball ‘jitterbugging etc was not permitted’.
There was a frost warning in Bristol for the second consecutive night – although so far there had been no evidence of damage to apple blossom in the area – a Nailsea grower said “The Frost Alarm rang at 5am but the frost was not sufficient to warrant putting on the heaters in the orchard”.
The ‘dim-out’ for lights was at 9.55pm.
In the weeks that followed life changed dramatically, with Germany surrendering and hostilities eventually ending in the Pacific the world could start to rebuild and the founders of Staple Hill Lodge could look ahead to a brighter future.
Staple Hill Lodge 6043 