Date of Warrant 5th November 1952
Consecrated 21st January 1953
Brief history of the Lodge of Fidelity 72397
Written by W. Bro. A. Watson. P. Prov. G. Swd. B.
Approx ten months before the consecration of the lodge, 20 Masons attended a meeting with the object of forming a new lodge at Birtley Masonic Hall.
The reason was that the existing Birtley lodges’ membership was large and had long waiting lists for new members.
The following twenty Masons were the founder members:-
W. Bros. C. M. Thompson, W. Lonsdale, J. F. Stephenson, H. W. Wake, J. Harrison, R. Baxter, G. L. Ford, and Bros. C. T. Walker, R. T. B. Adamson, F. H. Ransom, R. Robinson, A. Parkin, T. Grundy, M. J. L. Dickinson, A. Siggens, J. A. Stafford, G. W. Gibson, H. Soulsby, R. S. Jardine & G. Hannington.
This meeting took place on the 29th April 1952 and the name of the lodge was agreed, they also decided that the Lodge of Fidelity would be the daughter lodge of Moseley Lodge No. 3105. The Lodge of Fidelity would be a temperance lodge and would do emulation working. There were to be nine meetings a year which would include the installation meeting and the meetings would be held in the Birtley Masonic Hall. The meetings would be held on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 7pm. The vacation months would be June, July and August.
The initiation Fee (in 1952) was to be £20 and the annual subscription would be 3 Guineas (£3-3s 0d in old money (pre decimalisation in the UK) which would include refreshments for members.
The petition for a warrant with the clearance certificate for all founder members was sent to the Provincial Grand Lodge on the 9th October 1952 after being signed in open lodge of Moseley Lodge No. 3105. The date of the warrant was the 5th November 1952
Only one of our founder members is with us today the others having passed to the Grand Lodge above, he is Bro. Herbert Soulsby the current lodge organist. Each founder was allowed to propose one candidate to join and as six were admitted each year this ensured vocation for three years. The date of consecration for the Lodge of Fidelity 7237 was the 21st January 1953.
In the 1955 April G.P. Committee a vote took place for the founder members to propose second candidates which would now take vocation to 1959. In April 1957 it was decided to seek dispensation to hold a meeting in June each year making a total of ten meetings per year, this took effect in 1958 and still takes place today.
The Last Founder member to hold office as Master was W. Bro. G. Hannington and was in 1960.
Notable dates for the Lodge of Fidelity:-
1952 Date of Warrant was the 5th November
1953 Date of Consecration was the 23rd January
1978 Lodge of Fidelity celebrated 25th Anniversary
1987 The lodge banner was presented to the Lodge by the G.P. Committee
1993 At the lodge 40th anniversary the lodge banner was dedicated
2003 Lodge of Fidelity celebrated 50th anniversary
2006 We had our first Grand Lodge officer
2006 Lodge of Fidelity ceased to be a temperance lodge
2007 Lodge of Fidelity goes online “web-site” developed by Bro. R. Hannah
All members and officials names and photographs are used on the Lodge of Fidelity website with the written consent of each individual
