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Banners of Craft Lodges in Hertfordshire (Continued)

Abbots Langley Lodge No: 4645
The formation of the Abbots Langley Lodge was first mooted in 1922 by a few brethren who worked in Leavesden Hospital, who felt there must be a number of masons actual and potential on the staff of the institution and locally who would welcome a nearby lodge. Although the Provincial Grand Master of Hertfordshire considered the hopeful founders were too optimistic because he felt that Abbots Langley was not large enough to support a masonic lodge, the brethren persisted and the consecration ceremony held on 14th November, 1924.
 
During the years 1925/26, the lodge had the unique and eerie experience of holding meetings in the empty historical mansion then known as Langley House, Abbots Langley. The setting for the meetings was in the billiards room, which was approached from a marble landing with pillars and  a  very  short but  wide  stairway. The  last  Lodge meeting at Langley

House was on 6th October 1926 when there were fifty subscribing members.  At the meeting on 2nd February 1927, ten Grand Lodge certificates were presented. The lodge then moved to the newly opened Halsey Masonic Hall, Watford. The crest although not incorporated in the banner, shows the abbey of St Alban with the mitre and shield of the city.   

 

Two old banners are framed and hung on the wall in the lodge temple. The lodge banner, which had been provided by the founders, was presented to the lodge on their behalf by W.Bro W. Hamilton-Underhill, DPGM, during the Installation meeting on 2nd November 1927. The banner was dedicated and blessed by W.Bro R.H.Pope, ProvGChap. The centre panel depicts a reclining Hertfordshire Hart on water.

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