The Master’s Collar

In 2007 our newly installed Worshipful Master, W.Bro Alan Shippey, informed the Lodge GP committee that the Master’s collar was in a very fragile condition.

The collar had been in constant use since the Lodge was consecrated in 1948.  

Showing Its Age

After 59 years the fabric was beginning to disintegrate. There was no room left for extra name plates naming future Masters.  Surprisingly some names of Past Masters had not been engraved.

Miscommunication

We subsequently learned that there had been  a miscommunication between Masters and the Lodge secretary, each thinking the other had the responsibility to ensure the collar was updated with new names.

The GP committee agreed that the Masters Collar should be renovated and updated. In addition, an extra  row of name plates would be added to ensure the collar could still be in use when we celebrated our Centenary in 2048.

 Volunteer

W Brother Shippey volunteered to supervise the project. He very generously agreed to donate the substantial cost of the renovation. W Bro Shippey was the first wearer of the renovated collar in his year of office.

In preparing this brief narrative for the Cestreham website, we tried to establish from Lodge records if the original collar had been donated by a member or had it been part of the start up costs incurred by the lodge.