The Kent Masonic Library and Museum is situated in the heart of beautiful Canterbury, just a few hundred yards west of the magnificent cathedral. The building is surrounded by other custodians of the city’s legacy: the Buffs Museum to the north, the Heritage Museum and Canterbury Tales Exhibit to the south – all within easy reach along ancient alleyways.
    The Province of Kent – in 1973 divided into East and West Provinces – takes a pride in its masonic ancestry. In 1880 the site of the Temple was purchased by a combined effort of Kent lodges. The Masonic Hall was formally opened in 1880. In 1919, Colonel F. S. Cornwallis was installed as Provincial Grand Master; his contributions to Kent masonry in general, and to the Library and Museum in particular, have been unrivalled. In 1926 he became Deputy Grand Master and a year later, 1st Baron Cornwallis.
    In 1920, at his instigation, a committee was formed to establish a permanent home for the masonic treasures then dispersed throughout the province. By 1923 the Provincial Grand Lodge of Kent Library and Museum, under the presidency of Cornwallis, boasted some three hundred books and regular exhibits of important artefacts; an annual subscription of one guinea imposed on each lodge and chapter assisted the finances considerably! In 1933 the new library building was completed.

The Library and Museum

Things have progressed since those early days: the current Librarian, Jonathan Hurdwell, enthusiastically showed me around the library containing some 18,000 volumes and explained plans for an extension to accommodate additional shelves. Several of the rarest volumes – a first edition of Anderson’s Constitutions, sixteenth and seventeenth century Bibles, Benjamin Cole’s edition of the early charges, and others – are carefully displayed in glass cabinets. Working with Jonathan is the Museum curator, Peter Young, whose knowledge of the artefacts in the Museum is comprehensive. He is able to pinpoint every one of some five thousand jewels and several hundred aprons on exhibition or in the many trays and drawers under the display cabinets which house masonic glass, china and pottery.
    When visiting you will enter from the south through impressive mahogany doors. Do your best to choose a sunny day! The generous light diffused into the room through the five large and colourful stained glass windows will astound you. The designs represent, inter alia, the familiar coat of arms of the United Grand Lodge of England and those of HRH The Prince of Wales, Royal Grand Master from 1875 until his coronation as King Edward VII in 1901.
    These windows once belonged to the United Grand Lodge of England having found their way to the Canterbury Museum around 1932 – no doubt through the auspices of Cornwallis – when parts of the Museum in Great Queen Street were demolished and replaced by the new Freemason’s Hall.

Lodge Banners

Among the many treasures in the collection are two items which deserve special attention. Mounted on the east wall are a pair of what appear to be cloth tracing boards. In fact, they are masonic banners of the Craft and the Royal Arch respectively; they are exceptional in design and content. The larger of the two is the property of the United Industrious Lodge, No. 31, Province of East Kent, which had, in 1813, joined with the Industrious Lodge, No. 416, originally consecrated in 1776. The cloth has a centrally placed triangle with the letter G in the centre and seven blazing stars. Two pillars are on either side of an open volume of the sacred law upon which rest the Square and Compasses. Seven steps lead to the east and three candle-stands and a coffin rest upon the chequered carpet.
    In 1877, Bertha Chapter, No. 31, was consecrated and its minutes show that the Royal Arch banner on display was presented to the Chapter following its consecration by the Brethren of the United Industrious Lodge. Thus the two cloths are an "attached" pair which were intended for use as banners. The Royal Arch emblems on this second banner are charming and outstanding. Central and prominent are the three Principals with splendid headdresses – a crown on the head of Z refers to the Antients Grand Lodge and the King who is the equivalent of Zerubbabel in the Irish Constitution. A tiny hand holding a plumb rule protrudes from behind the second large pillar on the right; an emblem of the close connection of the Order to the Craft. The All-Seeing Eye radiates rays of sunlight through the open arch onto a floating altar. Quaintly depicted tools and emblems are dispersed throughout the hand-coloured cloth.
    The Kent Masonic Library and Museum is a delight and will be as satisfying to the curious outsider as it is to the learned masonic student. It is run by a dedicated group of volunteers whose labour of love has justly placed it among the few select custodians of our artefacts in England.

The Museum is open to the public on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10.00 – 12.00, 2.00 – 4.00. It is also open on 1st and 3rd Saturdays each month May to September, 11 am – 2 pm. The secretary will be happy to make special arrangements for visits at other times. Telephone 01227 785625.

Yasha Beresiner, LLB, is a Past Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076.

The Mysterious Masonic Sword
During the North African campaign in the Second World War, Bro. Walter Gooch from Herne Bay served in the Headquarters of the 30th Corps. On 26th November 1942, as a tank rolled by across the desert he saw something left partially uncovered in the sand. He was suspicious; it might have been an attachment to an enemy landmine. He carefully approached it and gently removed the sand from around it. To his surprise he discovered this masonic sword, the blade buckled by the tank’s tracks. How this ceremonial sword came to be in the desert some twenty miles south of Benghazi and to whom it previously belonged remains a mystery to this day. The best guess is that it was owned by an Italian Freemason since it seems to be an Italian blade with a North African cast hilt. It is on display in the museum, its blade still buckled.

In the Sale Rooms
Early cloth tracing boards are rare and priceless. My colleague and dearest friend Alan Alvey had one in his personal collection and donated it to the Derby Masonic Hall where it is now displayed. In 1847 the design of tracing boards was revolutionised by John Harris who won an Emulation School of Improvement competition; ever since then tracing boards have effectively been standardised with many hand-drawn designs of boards based on the Harris theme. Recently, Chimera Lodge, No. 10, of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy, purchased for over £1000, a set of boards in London, dated 1886, which were designed by Titus Fletcher, Master of the Charity Lodge, No. 350, in Manchester. Some smaller examples have changed hands at £300 to £500. A modern set of three tracing boards from masonic suppliers will cost approximately £120. When Freemasons’ Hall was refurbished in 1933, the architects Ashley and Newman also designed a set of tracing boards which are unique to Freemasons’ Hall. They can occasionally be obtained as posters to be later pasted onto card and framed for use.