THE article regarding the closure of Turton Masonic Lodge, over issues regarding its preferred meeting place and the stance take by the Provincial Office, amazed me (November 25).
Ridgmont House falls within East Lancashire as defined on the Provincial Website of West Lancashire.
It states: “The Province, founded as Lancashire Western Division in 1826, becoming the Province of West Lancashire in 1960, covers that part of the ancient county of Lancashire west of the Great North Road (the A6) but including Preston and Lancaster.
“It extends from the Lake District to the Mersey and from Liverpool into the suburbs of Manchester. Its lodges now meet in five counties but in all 511 lodges, the loyal toast is still to The Queen, Duke of Lancaster.”
In Ormskirk, Lathom and Croston, and in Chorley, Horwich and Westhoughton, 36 lodges meet. The website says the four which meet in Horwich, in Ridgmont House, a beautifully adapted country house, appear to have ‘strayed’, like moorland sheep, to the forbidden side of the A6.”
It seems that someone has got the ruling very wrong. A tragedy is about to happen if the two provinces do not get together and talk to each other and sort out this Masonic mess. With freemasonry in decline, they cannot afford to lose this lodge.
A Tyler, Address supplied
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