On Friday 24th of January disaster struck the lodge in the form of a severe storm which resulted in a phone call being made to Pm John Gardner from a neighbour of the lodge to indicate that our roof was lying in his garden, this obviously was a major shock to PM John as his first thought was the whole roof had came off but fortunately it was "ONLY" the felt which had came away in basically 3 large pieces destroying part of the perimeter fence and narrowly missing the neighbours pidgeon loft.

A call went out to the members by various platforms looking for assistance on the following morning to at least try and mitigate the damage and cut up and clear the felt from our various neighbours gardens. This was an extremely difficult task as the felt was in very large pieces and was very heavy and in the end up a still saw was required to cut it and thankfully we had a number of our own brethren to assist and indeed were joined by a band of willing helpers from our sister lodge Caldercruix St John 1314.

The efforts of these brethren was gratefully appreciated in particular as the weather that morning was absolutely abysmal with rain, snow and continuing high winds but thankfully they managed to tidy up the mess successfully. Meanwhile inside we were running about putting anything that could hold water underneath the numerous drips which were pouring in through the roof, indeed we had to purchase at least a dozen rubble buckets and pails to try and cover as much of leaks as possible. Over the next few days we set about removing lodge carpets, wardens chairs, past masters boards, photo's etc as possible. watching this was heart breaking but totally out of our hands.

We were grateful for the assistance of Goldie Roofing who were on the roof on the Monday morning and over the next few days managed to put a temporary covering on the roof which was crucial but unfortunately the damage done over the weekend had took its toll. The insurance was informed and were on site within a few days and our claim was submitted.

26th Jan 2025

25th Jan 2025

23rd June 2025 The work begins

24th June 2025 The scary part, what have we done

As you can see most of the ripping out has been done, I know it looks terrible but the fact that all the panelling etc. has had to be removed to avoid mould, rot etc is absolutely necessary. The re-instatement will most certainly look different but embrace this as an opportunity to modify the hall and bring it up to a more up to date look. There is no intention to take away the fact that this is our temple and predominately a masonic hall but this new roof and re-decoration should future proof the premises for those coming behind us and give them a hall to be proud of. Members of the committee have discussed how this decoration should look and hopefully we will have something on this platform indicating how it may look shortly, we would welcome your opinion on this and comments will be looked at and taken into consideration but we have to predominately stay within the budget of the insurance settlement. The contractors (Prolink) are working with us to facilitate as much of our requests as possible and are very accommodating with suggestions and advice.

We hope you can bear with us and trust in our judgement as we are striving to deliver as pleasing a finish as possible, we are all looking forward to returning to our own premises hopefully in September for a new and ongoing chapter in our lodge history.

Tuesday 8th July

Work on the roof has begun