Area 5

The area is the second largest in the Province in terms of the number of Lodges but having the smallest number of Lodge premises.

W. Bro. David Pratt, Assistant Provincial Grand Master

W. Bro. David Pratt, Assistant Provincial Grand Master

There are 49 lodges housed in 7 Masonic Halls and at 31 December 2008 accounted for 1756 (23.3%) of the total membership of 7542.

The area covers Leeds, Pudsey, Castleford, Pontefract, Wakefield, Morley and Batley with over half of the area Lodges being based in the two Masonic Halls in Leeds. As with all the area there are a number of ‘support’ groups.

There is currently a team of 27 Liaison Officers, the majority having responsibility for two Lodge each, a Charity Committee headed by W Bro Trevor Jones PPJGW, four Mentoring Coordinators, whose details and Lodge responsibilities can be found in the secretariat section.

Our Royal Arch link is through E Comp Frank Chappell, whilst the Communications Committee members with responsibility for Area 5 are W Bro’s Ian Lewis and Kevin Gould with the latter having specific responsibility for the Teddies for Loving Care. Also we have two Almoner Assistants in W Bro’s John Edmunds and Stephen Smith.

A recent initiative is to introduce a Master Mason’s Academy similar to that being run successfully in the Doncaster area. Information gleaning meetings have been held in Leeds and Batley to try to ascertain the topics that new master masons would like to have in the programme which is then expected to roll out fully in the spring of 2010. This is being headed by W Bro James Baird PPSGW with the support of the Leeds & District Installed Masters Lodge No 7918.

Whilst the LDIM Lodge No 7918 is a fully constituted Lodge there are also three Installed Masters Associations that cover the area, these being the Wakefield, Castleford and Pontefract IMA, and the Dewsbury & Spen Valley IMA.

News from Area 5