Clavis Lodge No.8585

History

(excerpts taken from The First Twenty-Five Years

by the late W Bro Frank C Price, Founder member)

From a recollection by W Bro Arthur Barker it seems that there had been more than one attempt in the late 1920s and early 1930s to form a Lodge of and for bellringers, but that these had been unsuccessful. V W Bro J S Pritchett, an Alderman of the City of Birmingham in 1911, was the driving force, and would have been a likely choice to become the first Master of such a Lodge.

The nature of the wide geographical spread of potential members was, and still is, a problem and it seems that the original approaches to Grand Lodge were for a ‘travelling warrant’, similar to those formerly issued to some Military lodges. This aspect, however, was unacceptable to Grand Lodge which was not prepared to issue such a Warrant and there the matter seems to have rested.

In order to re-kindle the spirit of masonic campanologists, small advertisements were placed in The Ringing World around 1960 by W Bro Peter Staniforth with a view to organising ‘Masonic Ringing Days’ around the country.