Welcome to Ardingly College Lodge

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Ardingly College Lodge No 4410

Our next meeting, at Freemasons' Hall in London, will be held on:

Wednesday, 7th March 2012

Email the Secretary for more details. We would love to see other Masons with connections to Ardingly in particular, whether Old Ardinians, family of current or old boys or girls of the College, staff, former staff or family members, Friends or former Friends of Ardingly, or any others not on this list.

Welcome to the Ardingly College Lodge web pages. The latest changes here were uploaded in December 2011.

Our lodge meeting on 13 December marked a remarkable anniversary. Our longest-serving member, Ken Peters, had joined the lodge on 4th December 1946, meaning that Ken has now passed sixty-five years of continuous membership of the lodge, in which period he was elected Master for the first time in 1963, and again in 1984. We honoured Ken and the occasion with a motion of congratulation, carried by acclamation.

We dined afterwards with our visitors and guests at the Kingsway Hall Hotel, conveniently close to Freemasons' Hall, cutting out the long walk up to Southampton Row for our previous dinner venue. A most enjoyable meal and conversation followed. Finally, the Burgoyne Loving Cup was circulated in memory of Pilot Officer Eric Burgoyne of this lodge, and of all those other members whose lives were sacrificed in the war of 1939-45; not mournfully, but in a spirit of pride in praising their memories.

Invitation!

The next OA Day will take place at Ardingly on Monday, 7th May 2012, a bank holiday. As usual, there will be things happening around the College, and everyone will be welcome to join us in a very informal open drinks and nibbles gathering. Our Secretary, Mike Byford-Bates, can tell you more. The lodge's general email address will find him.

These pages

There's a brief introduction below. To find out more, please use the links in the sidebar and look around this site.

Ardingly College is an English public school at Ardingly, in Sussex. It was founded in 1858 by Nathaniel Woodard, a Victorian with a drive to improve educational opportunity, and a brilliant fund-raiser. Woodard established Ardingly as St Saviour's College, after Lancing and Hurstpierpoint.
Freemasonry is an ancient institution organised into something recognisably like its present form during the English Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, with aspects of a charitable organisation, a spirit of enquiry and truth, and a social meeting place for men of like interests. English Freemasonry is supervised by the United Grand Lodge of England. Corresponding Grand Lodges exist in many other countries. Freemasons meet periodically in the thousands of private lodges existing under the UGLE.
In 1923 the then Headmaster of Ardingly College, together with other masters and the Provost of the school, the Bishop of Lewes, set up a new private lodge under the UGLE for Masons having a connexion with the school. We are that Lodge. We are open to Old Ardinians, school staff, parents of pupils and of OAs, and any other friend of Ardingly College who is, or wishes to become, a Mason, with some restrictions - regular Freemasonry is only open to men of good character.

On these pages you will find more information about who we are, what we do, where and when we meet, our history, other Masonic organisations of the Woodard schools, how to contact us, and links to external web pages of the School and of Masonry.