The History of Cabbell Lodge No 807
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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