The Craftsmen Week Commencing 9Th November 2020 Issue Number Thirty Two
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The Craftsmen Week Commencing 9th November 2020 Issue Number Thirty Two Welcome to the thirty second edition of the Ross Masonic Club Weekly Round-Up. A great big thank you to all of our contributors to this issue. I am sure we all appreciate your efforts each week. This week we have: • Patrick and Harry continue the stories of their varied careers • This week is Harry’s last episode! A special thank you to him for his articles over the last 12 weeks • Dennis provides an answer to his last question and poses a We Will Remember Them fresh one in ‘Would I know, did I know’ • Fun and Games at T@3 • We announce the winner to last weeks word search prize draw • Social Media Roundup • An article on St Mary’s Church Welsh Newton from Tim Fycun • VW Bro Graham King describes his route into masonry • The Christmas Market featuring arts and crafts from Brethren. Details of how to be included in a future Christmas Market edition on the back page Please keep your input coming with, once again, a special thank you to all those that contributed. Keep safe Brethren and keep in contact. The Craftsmen Newsletter Page 1 Would I know the answer? Did I know the answer? By W.Bro. Dennis W. Roberts, PAGDC Group Leader Information and Guidance Group You can always check your thoughts by visiting ‘Solomon’ of course! https://solomon.ugle.org.uk Dennis Roberts - Group Leader Information and Guidance Group e-mail: [email protected] Last time I asked Anno Lucis: what notes of the new edition of the King does it mean? James Bible printed in 1701, only a few years before the formation of the At nine o’clock on Saturday 23rd Premier Grand Lodge of England on October 4004BC the world was born 24th. June 1717. and Masonic time began, thus adding 4000 years to our ‘common time’ for As to the reason for its further Craft and Royal Arch masons. Other simplification to 4000 BC, we know Orders (Progressive), have different not; the rationale being lost in the calendars, each with a unique start mists of time. It is significant to bear in date. mind that the birth of geology and the challenge to religious orthodoxy was Craft Masonry’s Calendar uses the still 30 years away and that The Origin abbreviation, A.L. for Anno Lucis, of Species by Charles Darwin would meaning the ‘Year of Light’, signifying not be published for another 140 the moment of creation, described in years! We do go back a long way!! Genesis and epitomised by the words; ‘God said let there be light: and there was light’. Symbolically connecting the For next time, let me pose the creation of material light with the birth question of Masonic spiritual and intellectual light in the Candidate. Anno Lucis was Do you know why the Square is a based upon a simple chronological fitting Jewel for the Master’s collar? calculation, which used the Bible to count backwards to discover the You can always check your moment of creation. It was the work thoughts by visiting ‘Solomon’ of of two 17th Century luminaries. One, course! an academic, John Lightfoot, Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University; the other a cleric, Bishop James Usher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. They determined that; ‘Heaven and earth, centre and circumference, were created all together, in the same instant, and clouds full of water’, and that ‘This work took place, and man was created, by the Trinity on 23rd October, 4004 B.C., at nine o’clock in the morning.’ Amazing! Not only that, we continue to follow this date in Masonry and it is recorded on each and every Grand Lodge Certificate, (check yours out), along with the Anno Domini date of course! This date soon became accepted as religious orthodoxy and scientific fact and was subsequently incorporated into the text, heading and margin The Craftsmen Newsletter Page 2 There’s more than one way to earn a living Part 15 Patrick Eyre continues to recount his career moves. During the year I had spent working the way of a sitting room large and when the B&B had only been for my old company I was not happy bedroom and en-suite bathroom operating for a few years I had put with the progress and always felt and to make modifications to it on the market and a local couple that I would have needed a further the coach house providing were very interested in buying it but year at least to knock the area into more accommodation with en- at that time couldn’t raise the money. shape. However the main thing was suite bathroom. The walls of With it being a commercial property my boss was happy with what I had the house were rendered in a a mortgage was not available and achieved. Outside of work I can’t heavy pebbledash and I decided the income of the business at that say I was particularly happy with to undertake the work myself time was not sufficient to raise a life in general. I had been putting repainting them with white sandtex. business loan. in long hours each day usually Unfortunately, it couldn’t be done having a meal in a pub and going with a roller, so I had to use a All that changed when I produced home to a large empty house, all the 4-inch brush in a stabbing motion. one complete year’s trading figures, time having displayed a sign in the Spraying was out of the question, showing a good profit margin That window saying ’no vacancies”. I had so It kept me busy for a long time same couple reappeared, obtaining decided to sell the house anyway as well as being rather dangerous the loan on the strength of the but if I was going to market it as a when painting all four tall chimneys, takings and went on to make a guest house it needed a complete but it did keep me out of the way of real success of it by eventually overhaul and if I could get it through the builders. purchasing two adjacent properties planning, further extensions to and adding them to the business. the house to accommodate more I had left no stone unturned looking I guess you could say it’s another residents. for the best one and he might have one that got away but I did manage been had he carried out the work to claim all the VAT I paid on the I employed the architect who I knew himself but he used subcontractors development costs, even on the had a way of dealing with a very and they made several glaring duvets. non-cooperative county planning mistakes some of which I spotted department to draw up the plans whilst they were taking place. The I am now 61 but not ready to retire then waited somewhat anxiously for best one involved the sunken bath so looking for another business with their decision. Eventually it came in for my bathroom. When placing the time for some golf I hope the form of a telephone conversation the concrete on the over site and from the Chief Planning Officer shuttering off the hole for the bath informing me that it had been turned they left no access for the plumbing If you are interested I will tell you down on the basis of insufficient beneath and it took me to point it about it next week parking facilities. I asked him if that out, much to their embarrassment. was the only reason and he replied that it was. I then told him I had a The whole project took longer than Patrick rear entrance complete with garage I had planned so the reopening of and private access road with a 5 the guesthouse was affected too. bar gate at the bottom of the garden My intention was to run it myself which would open up room for more with hired help and with every parking I was very surprised he penny of revenue going through hadn’t spotted this, but he did confirm the books and registering for VAT. I that the council would withdraw their intended to market it as a profitable objections and grant permission. going concern. In due course this was achieved with the help of a The next step was to raise a bank reliable housemaid to look after the loan for the ambitious upgrade rooms and a laundry contract for I had planned to increase the bedlinen and towels. I cooked the number of rooms and update the full English breakfast myself on a existing ones with more en-suite large Cordon Bleu cooker and one facilities and renewing everything morning I cooked for 17 guests and from carpets to curtains and to this day I have never worked out duvets. The other intention was where they all slept. Fortunately for to build another extension for me they never appeared all at once. the owner’s accommodation in Long before all of this took place The Craftsmen Newsletter Page 3 T@3 Some light hearted treats to keep you amused. ‘When I Were A Lad’ Can you guess who this is? Not strictly a Ross Masonic Club Member this week but he has featured in the newsletter and attended some of our zoom calls. And we certainly all know and look up to him. He writes: I have attached a photo from 1966 of the Awaii School (Bahrain) cricket XI The photo shows us prior to the annual fixture against the dads.