Members of the branch visited the East Kent Museum of Freemasonry in St Peter's Place Canterbury. Several masons were available to show us around the museum and the Temple and they answered questions about their organisation which had its origins in the Crusades.
We were shown items from all around the world and told that the museum is one of the few places where non masons can find out about the organisation. Although they do not have mixed groups Freemasonry is open to men and women but they have their own lodges. Anyone may apply to be a member from all walks of life and any religion but all mason must believe in a god or higher being. In answer to a question about secrecy it was explained that although some elements were kept in house for a variety of reasons basically they have now realised that their former secrecy has not given them good press. Therefore, they are now opening up and allowing their good works to be publicised.
We were talked through the plans they had for extending their library which had many books of members of Freemasons not just from Canterbury and Kent. These go back centuries and are invaluable for family research if your ancestor was a mason. Also they are planning to modernise the museum and bring its old fashioned format into the 20th century. Applications were currently being put forward to the Lottery to fund it.
Members were then show a few of the items bequeathed to the Freemasons by Dr Teddy Church.As well as being a Freemason Dr Church had also been an active historian and family historian and member of several family history societies. There were over 8,000 items which had been boxed up and removed from his house after his death and were now in store. They were going to be put on their museum and library database so they could be easily found. Most of the collection will be made available on shelves to the public in the new library. But some items were so rare that they would not be found in many archives and would need to be locked away. However, they still wanted them made available to be used and so they hoped to have volunteers on daily duty who would be able to fetch items on request.
Currently they operate their Museum with their member volunteers and they hoped that members of Kent Family History Society might like to help them staff the new family history research library with their members. Some members showed and interest and it is hoped that once the new plans had been implemented and completed more members of KFHS might consider doing a day or half a day each a week.
Report by Tricia Baxter