Where Cabbell Lodge
has met:
STAR INN, HAYMARKET, April 19th,
1860 – October 25th, 1861
ASSEMBLY ROOMS, THEATRE STREET,
October 31st, 1861 – July 29th, 1872
NORFOLK HOTEL, ST. GILES STREET,
October 31st, 1872 – July 31st, 1873
RAMPANT HORSE INN, RAMPANT HORSE
STREET, November 27th, and December 29th, 1873
ASSEMBLY ROOMS, THEATRE STREET,
January 29th, 1874 – September 28th, 1876
LAMB INN, HAYMARKET, October 26th,
1876 – October 25th, 1877
RAMPANT HORSE INN, RAMPANT HORSE
STREET, November 29th, 1877 – September 25th, 1879
MASONIC ROOMS, 23
(LATER 47) ST. GILES STREET, October
30th, 1879 – April 27th, 1905
BELL HOTEL, CASTLE MEADOW, September
28th, 1905 – January 25th, 1906
MASONIC ROOMS, 47 ST. GILES STREET,
(Title changed to Masonic Hall in
1945), February 22nd, 1906 – to date
The Charter
of Cabbell Lodge, dated February 7th 1860, places it fourth
chronologically of the surviving Norwich Masonic Lodges, and there are
in fact only eight remaining older Lodges in the whole of the Province
of Norfolk. Cabbell was the first of these to be named after an
individual. He was Benjamin Bond Cabbell, F.R.S., F.S.A., of Cromer
Hall, the tenth Provincial Grand Master for Norfolk, appointed in 1854,
a Past Master of Lodge of Antiquity, No. 2 – one of the ‘red apron’
Lodges – and Junior Grand Warden (Grand Lodge) in 1828. During his
Provincial Grand Membership six new Lodges were founded, three of them
on Norwich (Cabbell, 1860; Sincerity, 1863; Walpole, 1874). Already 79
when Cabbell Lodge was consecrated, the Prov.G.M. was unable to be
present at the ceremony, but he signified his interest by subsequently
contributing over sixty pounds to the three Masonic Charities in the
name of Cabbell Lodge, whose Worshipful Master has therefore votes in
perpetuity in each of them. Bro. Bond Cabbell, whose portrait in oils by
Henry O’Neil, R.A., hangs in the Le Strange Temple of the Norwich
Masonic Hall, was educated at Westminster, and Exeter College, Oxford,
and later became a bencher of the Middle Temple, and a J.P. and D.L.
both of Middlesex and Norfolk. He was M.P. for St. Alban’s, 1864-7, and
for Boston from 1847 to 1857, but his main interests were scientific
rather than legal or political, and though in 1848 he petitioned in
favour of a Bill removing the disabilities on Jews entering Parliament
and spoke aginst the window duties which encouraged builders to provide
dark and gloomy houses, little was heard of him in Parliament in his
later years. He purchased Cromer Hall estate for £65,000 in1852, served
as High Sheriff of Norfolk on 1854, and presented to Cromer in 1868 a
fully equipped lifeboat, as well as contributing handsomely to the
restoration of the parish church. He lived until the age of 93, and died
in 1874, being buried at Marylebone. A replica of his coat of arms is at
the back of the small Supper Room of the Norwich Masonic Hall, and is
also carried in the Cabbell Lodge Summons.
The warrant of February, 1860, in the name of the Grand
Lodge of England, consisting ‘a Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons under
the title…of the Cabbell Lodge No. 1109. The Said Lodge to meet at the
Star Inn St. Peter of Mancroft time met on licensed premises and the
Thursday meeting, convenient for business people, has been retained ever
since. The consecration took place on Thursday April 19th,
1860, at 3 p.m., the Deputy Provincial Grand Master for Suffolk (Bro.
the Rev. F. W. Freeman), who was that year W.M. of Faithful Lodge,
Harleston, deputising for Prov.G.M. Cabbell. It was perhaps this Suffolk
link that led the Secretary to confuse ‘Cabbell’ with the well-known
Ipswich name of ‘Cobbold’ when first drawing up his minutes. There were
several present and past officers of the Provincial Grand Lodge among
the company and Brethren from the three existing Norwich Lodges, Union,
Social and Perseverance – the last-named providing all the Officers of
the new Lodge. After the ceremony ‘the Lodge was…closed in the three
degrees by the W.M. and Officers, after which the Brethren upwards for
Fifty in numbers retired to a Banquet and passed a Joyous Evening’.
The first regular meeting was held only a week after the
consecration, on April 26th, 1860, and on May 31st
the first two initiations were taken, separately, of Bro. Wm. Bullard (W.M.
in 1869) and Bro. John Suggett. There were thirteen meetings in the
opening year. Apart from the Prov.G.M.’s gifts already noted, it was
distinguished by the presentation in June of a Bible by the Provincial
Grand Chaplain, Bro. the Rev. S. Titlow, which is till used in Cabbell
Lodge, and bears the donor’s portrait inside, and in August of a tracing
broad for the second degree by Bro. H. Underwood. This was the first
occasion since the consecration banquet that there was any mention of
refreshment. At the October meeting there were further gifts of a banner
pole, the Cabbell arms, triangle tackle and a perfect ashlar by Bro. R.
Gunn. A Lodge of Instruction met for the first time at 6:30 p.m. (before
the 8 p.m. meeting of the main Lodge) in November. No summary of the
first year’s working can conclude without special mention of the first
Master, Wor.Bro. H. J. Mason, an auctioneer with offices in Pottergate
and St. Gregory’s Alley, Norwich, Initiated into Perseverance Lodge in
1842, he became W.M. of that Lodge in 1845, of Social Lodge in 1846,
first Master of Cabbell Lodge in 1860, of Sondes Lodge, Dereham, in
1864, of Joppa Lodge, Fakenham, in 1866, and Doric Lodge, Wymondham, in
1867. He was also Provincial G.D.C. from 1866 to 1875, and was very
prominent in the Knights Templar, Royal Arch and Mark degrees.
The Installation of the second Master – Cabbell Lodge’s
first important ceremony celebrated without outside help – was preceded
by no fewer than four special meetings, one of which the Officers agreed
to purchase their jewels and subsequently to sell them either to the
Lodge or to their successors. The Brethren’s hard work was followed by
‘refreshment when 21 members of the Lodge and 26 visiting Brethren sat
down and partook of a very excellent Banquet served in very first rate
style by Mrs. Watson…the usual Masonic Toasts were interspersed with
many good songs and speeches…The Brethren on retiring unanimously
declared they had passed one of the Happiest evenings if their lives.’
W.Bro. E. J. Brown tells us ‘The year so happily begun
proved a most remarkable one. Candidates came on so fast, and there was
consequently so mush work to do, that the Lodge was frequently adjourned
from week to week, so that several Meetings were held in a month. In
October this year the Lodge removed to the Assembly Rooms, not, however,
without gracefully thanking their Hostess of the Star for her kindness
for catering for the comfort of the members. This change of abode gave
great satisfaction, especially as there was another room for
refreshments. The catering in the new home was in the hands of the
members. They kept their own store and special Stewards arranged for the
banquets.’ Doubtless some of the members had misgivings about leaving
their first home, for the Star Inn was a very old important one, dating
from mediaeval times, when the star was the emblem of the Holy Virgin.
There is a record of the hostelry being a place of entertainment as long
ago as 1677, and for over a century and a half, up to the 1830’s, it was
the terminus of a coaching route between Diss and Norwich. The site is
now (1960) occupied by Green’s (Norwich) Ltd, who purchased it until
1893. Nevertheless, the Assembly Rooms, which from 1862 were recorded in
the minutes as the Freemasons’ Hall, offered much great accommodation –
a ‘large ballroom…66 feet by 23 and …small one 50 by 27…tea room, 27
feet square’…‘a suit of rooms of 143 feet, illuminated by ten braches
holding 150 candles, and the company forming into one row, may dance the
whole length of the building’.
On July 11th, 1861, there was a report that
‘various impositions’ had been practised upon the W.M. and other
Brethren, and it was decided to keep the dispensation of charity in
future in the hands of one man – W.Bro. H. J. Mason. In November, 1862,
several Knights of the newly founded Cabbell Encampment (now Cabbell
Preceptory) attended the Lodge (Cabbell Chapter had been founded in
1861).
The Lodge’s warrant was framed in January, 1863, and in the
same month the officers and Brethren forwarded a petition to Grand Lodge
requesting a new warrant for founding of Sondes Lodge, Dereham. The
meeting of July 30th, 1863, after which Bro. Underwood
provided a banquet, is the first in which Cabbell Lodge bears its
present number of 807. His death ‘at the advanced age of sixty-seven’
was recorded two months later, and testimony paid ‘to the many excellent
qualities which adorned his character as a Man, reverently fearing and
serving The One Great Creator and Preserver of all things as a Citizen
of the World’. Previously, in August, 1862, he had been presented with a
silver tea-service. On March 31st, 1864, the services of Bro.
Minns. P.P.G. Supt. Works, seconds Master of Cabbell Lodge, were also
recorded on the minutes following his death in February, 1864. Much
consideration was given to the framing of by-laws at this time, and
there are several records of charity being dispensed. Attending began to
suffer, and in 1863 it was minuted that ‘fines for non-attendance of
officers be strictly enforces’. By 1866 further progress towards the
present-day administration of the Lodge had been made – a reduction in
the fees for subscribing members, provision of refreshments by the
Lodge, and an annual recess of four months between April and September.
The October meeting was not held that year, owing to the death of
D.P.G.M. (Bro. W. Leedes-Fox).
From 1867 to the next permanent move in 1876, the minutes
are somewhat more colourless than in the earlier period. For six years
from the catering for the Annual January Installation banquet was done
by Bro. James Woods ‘in his usual bountiful manner’, but in 1870 this
provision, by Bro. R. Palmer, was not forth-coming until February. The
D.P.G.M. (Bro. A M. F. Morgan), apparently the most senior Provincial
Officer received by the Lodge up to this time, attended at the
Installation of January 27th, 1876. A Harmonium, usually
played by Bro. G. Brittain, was in the use intermittently from 1870, and
there is occasional mention of the singing of the opening and closing
odes. An Organist is not listed among the officers until 1875 (Bro. S.
N. Berry). An audit is mentioned in 1870, and from 1873 is become
customary to grant the Tyler an honorarium of a guinea. Another not
uncommon in Norfolk masonary at that time was represented by a visit
en masse by the Doric Lodge, Wymondham, in April 1869. The recovery
from serious illness of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales was the subject of a
special minute in 1871, but the death of the patriarchal Prov.G.M. of
Norfolk in 1874 passed unrecorded. For eleven meetings in 1872-3 the
Lodge gathered at the Norfolk Hotel – a frequent resort of George Borrow
at the time, and built where the Hippodrome now stands in St. Giles
Street – followed by two Lodges at the Rampant Horse Inn, but a return
to the Assembly rooms was made after an eighteen months’ break in 1874.
It was short-lived, for the property was soon after sold to the Public
Day Schools’ Trust, to become the Norwich High School (1877-1933).
The Brethren met at the Lamb Inn for the next year (October
26th, 1876-October 25th, 1877), the only licensed
house used be Cabbell in the nineteenth century that is still standing.
It was originally part of the city Jewry, and stands in a narrow
passage-way facing Haymarket, very close to the Lodge’s first home, the
Star. It still remains its capacious assembly room, approached from the
yard by an outside stairway. From November, 1877 to September, 1879 the
meeting-place was once again nearby the Rampant Horse Inn, whose site is
at the present occupied by part of Curl’s stores. When pulled down
towards the end of the nineteenth century, it was at least six hundred
years old, and had in recent centuries passed through successive stages
as a political centre (seventeenth century), amusement resort
(eighteenth century) and coaching inn. If the Lamb Inn had experienced a
grisly murder (1787), the Rampant Horse in its mail coach days was the
scene of dispatch of three weighty parcels, containing dead bodies
snatched from Lakenham churchyard. When Cabbell Lodge met there it was
the principal resort of Norfolk cricketers. There are resorts of a
delegate being sent to the Girls’ festival (1877), five guineas
donations to the Flood disaster fund (1878) and, in the same year,
condolences to H.R.H. the Grand Master on the death of his sister. The
initiation fee was increased from four to six guineas and the joining
fee from ten and sixpence to three guineas in 1878, and the increased
funds appear to have produced immediate increased amenities, if not
solvency. The first Past Master’s jewel was presented to Bro. A. J.
Berry, on the Initiation of his successor in January, 1879. Generous
donations towards banquets were made by him and by Bro. Geo. Green, even
so the Lodge’s deficit had climbed to £108 11s. 2d. in
1882.
Ever since quitting the Assembly Rooms, the Brethren had
been interested in the project of setting up a permanent Masonic Hall in
Norwich and shares had been subscribed in 1877. On October 30th,
1879, Cabbell Lodge held its first meeting at what was to be its
permanent home, 23 (now 47) St. Giles Street. Was there merging of
tradition, loss of individuality in ceremonial (or even of personal
Lodge property!), in moving to a resort shared now by several other
Lodges? If so, there was ample compensation in meeting at the Provincial
Headquarters, in the splendid facilities and extended fellowship that
the permanent home brought with it. 47 St. Giles was a Georgian house
bought a few years after its use for Masonic purpose from a W.M. of
Perseverance Lodge. In 1905 and the following years the Le Strange
Temple on the first floor was made, but unfortunately the Old Georgian
red-brick front was removed and the present ornamental stone front
introduced. The Bishop Bowers Temple was opened in 1929, and in 1955
strikingly improved social amenities were made available with the taking
over of 49 St. Giles Street, which has been allowed to retain its
Georgian dress. The ‘Home of Norfolk Freemasonry’ receives this comment
in a recent number of the Ashlar: ‘What a boon and blessing on
“Lodge nights” to go into the Temple for “labour” and when finished
retire for refreshment without “volunteering” to clear the Lodge Room,
as is the experience of many of our county brethren who have no premises
of their own…there is a billiard room (3 tables), card room, reading
room and a library with daily, weekly and monthly papers and magazines,
together with the necessary writing materials. Light afternoon teas are
served in the library at small cost and not least there is a bar where
wines and spirits are dispensed by a cheerful staff at lower charges
than elsewhere’.
The individual history of our Lodge calls for slighter
treatment now than it is safely installed at Headquarters, along with
eleven other Craft Lodges. Reviewing first the period up to the death of
Queen Victoria, the Lodge led a flourishing though somewhat improvident
existence, and in many years the full four months’ recess was not taken.
Naturally enough, the Lodge meeting at the Headquarters, now played a
fuller part in the affairs of the Province, and in 1880 had a share in
revising the by-laws of Provincial Grand Lodge, and in publishing a
Provincial Masonic calendar. From 1881 lists of visiting Lodges sending
greetings began to be given. During the recess of 1885 the Headquarters
was renumbered from 23 to 47 St. Giles Street. Though visitors were not
as numerous as today (about forty were present in October1897), absence
of any at all, as in September 18898, called for special comment. From
the earliest days at 23, there is mention of a Master of Ceremonies, and
in January, 1882, the Secretary’s entry of D.C. was corrected by another
hand to M.C., but the newer title soon prevailed among the official list
of Officers annually installed. Two Stewards are mentioned at the 1881
installation, and the three in 1882 were invested with collars. In the
same year two Past Masters were expunged from the Lodge for non-payment
of subscription. The annual subscription which at least since 1869, had
been a guinea was raised to 30s. in 1878, in 1882 to 34s.,
and in 1889 to £2. A useful innovation in 1893 was a bi-monthly meeting
of the Officers and Past Masters to discuss candidates, a precursor of
the Lodge Committee. A ‘handsome and useful Box’ was presented for
keeping the Lodge’s records in 1897. An inventory of October, 1888, had
valued its property at £100, and from this year fire insurance began to
be paid.
Cabbell Lodge’s Secretaries have never drawn up minutes in
extravagant terms – Bro. X may ‘raise’ candidates ‘in a very
praiseworthy and masterly manner’, and Bro. Y ‘effectively deliver the
charge’, but if undue praise may lead to undue emulation, due praise is
thankfully recorded. January 27th, 1881, was an outstanding
day in history of Cabbell Lodge when it was visited by a provincial
Grand Master for Norfolk (Lord Suffield) for the first time. ‘Hearty
good wishes were given by the visitors, which were numerous on this
occasion...The Provincial Grand Master did not stay to the Banquet in
consequence of a recent bereavement but before he left he congratulated
the Lodge on the excellent working, and promised to pay another visit at
the earliest opportunity.’ This memorable meeting, at which Bro. George
Green was installed Master, was the occasion also of the ballot for Mark
Knights, the well-known nineteenth-century antiquary. Lord Suffield kept
his promise, and attended again in 1891 with his D.P.G.M., Bro. Hamon Le
Strange, who came again in 1892 and 1893. By now a ‘social board’,
though not regularly minuted, was probably a feature of most meetings,
and annual honoraria were given to the club steward. Music was enjoyed,
but not at too high a price; the Brethren were willing to rent the piano
and harmonium for £1 per annum (May, 1888), but not to subscribe towards
their purchase (April, 1892). The Installation was, as always, the main
event of the year; at it twenty-one Past Masters of Lodges were present
in 1887, twenty-five in 1889, and thirty-one in 1894 (forty-three Past
Masters were present at the 1859 Installation). It is only once recorded
that the Lodge was draped in mourning when Bro. E. Pankhurst, P.M., died
in March 1888, and there was some comment made that not enough Brethren
had attended his funeral owing to the Fair. On this occasion, as when
the Lodge met on Old Year’s Night (1896), when the steward was bereaved
(February, 1897), and after the Queen had just died (January, 1901)
there was no social board.
Much charity was dispensed during these years to widows,
dependents, and distressed brethren, and more than one substantial
donation to the three great charities is recorded. Good wishes were sent
to the Duke of Albany on his wedding, but condolences on his death and
on the death of the Queen are also recorded. A subscription was sent to
the Imperial Institute (1887), and to the army in the Boer War. The
Lodge is perhaps seen at its most characteristic in its relations with
its own members – in a letter of condolence to Bro. C. A. B. Bignold,
son of the Mayor of Norwich (the typically ‘period’ reply referred to
the ‘sympathy shewn by all classes’), in the presentation of an album of
portraits to Bro. J. H. Guyton, P.M., on leaving Norwich; more
especially in May, 1887, when a ‘cold collation’ was the scene of a
presentation to Bro. George Baxter, P.M., of an illuminated address and
silver mounted dressing bag. Bro. Baxter was appointed Prov.S.G.W. in
the same year. The Lodge cash-box notes that he presented £265 14s.
6d. to Cabbell Lodge to commemorate the Queen’s golden
jubilee. This money was, in fact, debts owed him by the Lodge that has
steadily mounted through the years. In 1870 there was a credit balance
of 14s. 51/2d., and when Bro. Baxter took office (1875)
this had turned into a debit if £43 9s. 11d., and despite
such devices as paying for five years wine for banquets at once (£91 7s.
1d. in 1885), the debit steadily grew to the amount Baxter wrote
off. Notwithstanding his generous gift the credit balance in the Lodge
accounts at this time was only £5 4s. 8d. He was Lodge
Secretary from 1875 to 1896 and on his retirement a testimonial fund was
raised for him. In November, 1899, the Prov.G.M. (Bro. Hamon Le Strange)
attended and was presented with a replica of his own armorial bearings
to hang in the Lodge room so long as Masonic meetings were held there
(it is now in the small Supper Room). A year or two earlier (1897), the
Lodge with others, had subscribed to a fund for providing photographs of
the headquarters bust of the previous Provincial Grand Master (Lord
Suffield), for display in country Lodges.
The first mention of printing a menu card is in 1884, and
this may have caused the increase in cost per head to go up from 5s.
to s. the following year. Perhaps the Brethren dispensed with a
card in future for the cost was soon out back to 5s. P.M.
Baxter’s generosity did not keep the accounts in credit long, for he was
again owed £40 17s. 6d. in 1889, and £42 4s.
0d. in the year of his retirement (1896). The new Secretary (Bro.
H. Rosling) did his best to balance the accounts, and expenditure (which
had been £225 9s. 4d. in 1890) was cut to £72 6s. 4d.
in 1896 despite the repayment of Bro. Baxter’s £42 4s. 0d.
Afterwards the Lodge remained continuously in credit.
A surviving summons (1885) from the period if George
Baxter’s secretaryship does not differ greatly from the one of today:
‘Black Attire, White gloves, and…the Clothing of their Rank and Office’
was specified for Brethren. Round about the turn of the century the
minutes became longer, and are soon set out strictly according to rule
144, Book of Constitutes. At the meeting of February 28th,
1901, all the regular officers and the I.P.M. are named: of the
additional officers only a Chaplain, an Assistant D.C., an Almoner,
and an Assistant Secretary are lacking, so that there were twelve
officers in all. There were also present five other Past Masters and
twenty-three Brethren of Cabbell. The attendance was no doubt larger
than usual because both the Prov.G.M. (Bro. Hamon Le Strange) and the
D.P.G.M. (Bro. H. J. Sparks) were present, together with four visiting
Worshipful Masters, two Provincial Grand Officers, eight visiting Past
Masters, and sixteen visiting Brethren. After reading of minutes two
Brethren were passed, and the balance sheet – still presented each
February – approved. Afterwards ‘the Lodge was closed with Prayer and
Peace and Harmony. The Brethren and Visitors to the number of about 70.
Adjourned to a Banquet…and the remainder of the evening was enjoyably
spent interspersed with Toasts and Song.’
Though ‘labour’ in 1901 was not excessive it seems
curiously arranged to us; at the April meeting there were no candidates,
but lectures on the first and second tracing boards. In May the only
business was three propositions; at the September meeting there were
three initiations; in October one initiation and three raising; in
November two initiations, one passing and two raisings, as well as other
business. ‘Mr Percy Osbourn Age 25 Commercial Traveller 30 Grapes Hill
Norwich’, balloted for September 25thm 1902, heads the list of our
members today (1960). He was W.M. in 1912 and Prov.G.W. in 1944. For a
short time in 1905-6, owing to structural alterations, the Lodge
temporarily deserted 47 for the Bell Hotel. The last meeting there
(January 25th, 1906) was noteworthy for a presentation of a
silver salver to Bro. H. Rosling, the Lodge Secretary, and of a gold
bracelet to his wife, in commemoration of Bro. Rosling’s ten years’
service as Secretary, and twenty-first anniversary as a Past Master.
Apart from the compliments paid to Mrs. Watson, innkeeper of the Star,
nearly fifty years earlier, this is the only mention of a lady’s service
to the Lodge in the minutes. By this time the minutes contain far more
ceremonial detail than was the case in Bro. Baxter’s time, and one
wonders whether a remark that an initiation was ‘satisfactorily
performed by the W.M., brother X afterwards giving the charge
admirably’ is conventional or intentional! Initiation fees were
increased in 1907, and the same year a Lodge of Instruction was resumed
– there was previously reference to one in 1860. The main Lodge voted
three guineas towards the cost of its regalia in February, 1908. There
was obviously much closer contact with Grand Lodge then there had been,
and references to the principal Masonic Charities are frequent; in 1909
the Lodge of Instruction offered its surplus of £5 to procure an
additional vote, used for the Benevolent Institution for Aged
Freemasons, if the main Lodge would offer a like amount, which it did,
‘cheerfully and gratefully’. Wreaths for deceased members, first
mentioned in 1888, became a regular item in the accounts, and the great
amount of charity that had to be voted to necessitous Lodge members,
even former Past Masters and their dependents, is a striking comment on
the near-neighbourliness of poverty and affluence in the years before
pension schemes became the rule.
Contact with Grand Lodge of a noel kind is recorded on March
31, 1910, when that, in lieu of other business, Bro. E. J. Brown read to
the members of the Lodge ‘the Early History thereof which ha had
collected by diligent research into old Minuets and Manuscript (sic)
and written out for the Edification of himself and the brethren’. This
paper, or a modification of it, was subsequently read to the Lodge of
Instruction on four occasions, and printed in 1950. Bro. Brown was at
the time Master of Londesborough Lodge No, 1681, and in 1893 joined
Cabbell Lodge of which he was Master in 1901, D.C. 1912-34, and
subsequently Chaplain. He was Prov.G.D.C. in 1902, and from 1908 until
his death in 1936, Preceptor of the Lodge of Instruction. Of him, Bro.
T. E. Parry, P.P.G.W., P.P.G.J., says ‘he was modest and retiring, but
ever ready with advice, counsel and information to all seekers after
knowledge and was the most genuine Mason I have had the privilege of
knowing…It has been said, and I think truly, that he was the greatest
asset Cabbell Lodge ever possessed.’ His portrait hangs in the back of
the small Supper Room.
In December, 1916, Bro. S. N. Berry, the oldest but one
member of the Lodge, died after thirty-four years’ service as Treasurer,
and in March, 1919, Bro. W. R. Bond presented the Lodge with working
tools in silver in s morocco case. About the same time a subscription of
ten guineas was made towards a portrait of Bro. G. W. G. Barnard,
D.P.G.M. In 1920 subscription were increased to three pounds per annum,
as it was ‘quite impossible to carry on the Lodge on the present rates
of payment’. There were five joining members in January, 1921, an
effective comment on the dislocation of the post-war world, though the
war’s end in 1918 had received no more comment than its beginning. Bro.
H. Rosling died in September, 1921, and an annuity was voted to his
widow; other special grants in the inter-war period were to the Hamon Le
Strange memorial (1922) and the Lodge Library fund (1934), and for
relief of the Quetta earthquake (1936). Black-edged summons were issued
on the death of Lord Cornwallis, D.G.M., in 1935. An important statement
of principle from Grand Lodge in 1938 obviously referred to those
continental countries who no longer recognised the Sacred Law, and
within a year a war that dislocated Freemasonry far more that its
predecessor was upon us.
In September, 1939, all Lodge meetings throughout the
country were suspended by Grand Lodge, but after two months of the
phoney war was rescinded and Cabbell Lodge, with others, met again in
November. Earlier meeting times, shortened ‘after-proceedings’, and
greater delegation of days and places of meeting to Provincial Grand
Masters, was enjoined by Grand Lodge. A year after the war’s outbreak it
was reported that Bro. B. Hoult was killed by enemy action, and in 1942
the Grand Master (the Duke of Kent), a Past Grand Master (the Duke of
Connaught), and the Provincial Grand Master (Sir Raymond Boileau) all
died – black edges to stationary, but not the trappings of mourning were
ordered by Grand Lodge. Happily there are not the individual records of
poverty characteristic of former years, and grants to distressed
Brethren became rarer.
After November, 1939, Lodges were held regularly all
through the war, with the exception of the meeting in April, 1942, which
was abandoned after an unusually heavy blitz. Some meetings were
arranged to coincide with the full moon; others on alternate Thursdays
and Saturdays; for some years a May meeting was substituted for the
December one. Often Brethren had to leave meetings to take up police,
fire or civil defence duties. Thirty-nine Brethren were engaged in some
form of war service. Bro. M. I. F. Green was killed while acting as a
flying instructor in the R.A.F., following a very distinguishing career
in this service. His death took place exactly sixty years after the
Mastership of W.Bro. George Green, his grandfather. We have here the one
case of three generations in the Lodge – W.Bro. George Green, his son
Frank, and grandson Ivan. The making of a Photostat copy of the Lodge’s
warrant, attendances some 60 per cent of normal and the wearing of dark
mourning dress or uniform instead of evening dress, were other results
of the war. Soon after it ended, the Lodge suffered a great loss by the
death in 1947 or W. Bro. A. W. Oxbrow, Treasurer for thirty years
(1917-1947).
On November 28th, 1940, at the suggestion of the
W. M. (Bro. F. Warren), the whole of the ceremony of raising was carried
out by Past Masters. The Past Masters’ night, an innovation in the
Province then, has since been copied elsewhere and became an annual
event in Cabbell Lodge. In 1942 W. Bro. Bond was appointed G.A.D.C., and
Cabbell Lodge presented him with the full undress clothing of his new
rank. He had already been Lodge Secretary for twenty-two years, and
served another two, the decline in the firmness of his hand in the last
months of his office testifying to his determination to serve the Lodge
to the end. On the sudden death of W.Bro. R. J. Hemnell, who had been
Assistant Secretary for six years, took full charge of the secretarial
duties, and so well did the Brethren respond to a campaign against
arrears that next year’s Balance Sheet Showed there was not one
subscription outstanding. Owing to pressure of professional and social
commitments, W.Bro. Hemnell felt unable to take the secretaryship and
W.Bro. T. E. Parry occupied the position for the next three years
(1945-8) when W.Bro. F. H. Olorenshaw succeeded for four years
(1948-52). When he resigned owing to ill health, W.Bro. R. J. Hemnell
was persuaded to occupy the position for a year, and has continued to
the present time. The sudden death of Bro. Olorenshaw when on holiday in
Norway in 1957 came as a great shock to the Lodge.
With the return of normal conditions our present Provincial
Grand Master (the Rt. Rev. Bishop Herbert, K.C.V.O., D.D.) aided by his
D.P.G.M. (W.Bro. F. R. Eaton, P.G.D.) continued their work free from
limiting travelling restrictions. News of Cabbell Lodge began to appear
in the Ashlar, a newly founded masonic magazine for the province,
as did details of its Masters. In March, 1946, for the first time in the
history of the Lodge, two Lewis’s were initiated together, one of then
out Centenary Master. In the same year Bro. L. Oldfield, the W. M.,
delivered a special explanatory address to new Master Masons on the
receipt of their Grand Lodge Certificates, and this practice has been
continued ever since. In 1957 W.Bro. Percy Osbourn, P.P.G.W., at present
senior members of Cabbell Lodge (initiated 1902), retired from the
Norwich Masonic Club Committee after sixteen years as chairman. He was
presented with his portrait which now hangs in the vestibule at 47 St.
Giles. We may be proud that in our centenary year our senior member
should be one of whom it was written on his retirement: ‘He was
punctual, faithful in attendance, courteous, imaginative and governed by
honest and sound principles. His attitude towards life excluded personal
advantages. His reward was in his work. He fully appreciated the loyalty
of his committee, the executive and the staff generally and the help
given so freely by them.’
One example of a family succession in the Lodge has been
referred to above, and there have been others, notably the long service
of the two Bros. E. Hollidge, father and son, as Tylers – the father’s
portrait hangs at the back of the small Supper Room. It is particularly
fitting that in our centenary year the Chair should be occupied by
W.Bro. I. W. E. Lincoln, son of a former Master, Bro. W. A. Lincoln.
Though the name of certain families recurs in this way, Cabbell Lodge
has never confined its membership to any particular social class. The
first thirty initiates (excluding those for whom no occupation is given)
included three ironmongers, three estate agents, two architects, two
carpenters, two merchants, and representatives of such varied
occupations as a jeweller, a carrier, an artist, a tobacconist, a
solicitor’s clerk, a master mariner and an innkeeper. Similarly, a
return of a few years ago incorporates architects, builders, chemists,
clergymen, clerks, commercial travellers, doctors, local government
officers, police, teachers, a butcher, a corn merchant, a tobacconist, a
tailor, and a tanner – an equally wide cross section of the community.
The average initiate today is up to ten years older than his predecessor
of fifty and more years ago, but, like him, associates in ‘peace and
harmony’ with Brethren of many diverse interests and occupations. This
pervasive representative character has contributed to a membership of a
hundred and twenty that we are now celebrating. In out second century
may we and our successors be worthy to follow those whose record lies
herein.
Bibliography
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CLERK OF THE PEACE,
Return of Freemasons, Cabbell Lodge, No. 807. April 18th
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