579St Bryde

Barbados Visit.                    James L. Jack , P.M. 

[Oct 2004]

Barbados Photos - click here to view

During the summer I had the opportunity while on holiday to visit a Scottish Lodge in Bridgetown, Barbados. Lodge Scotia No. 340 was Chartered on 5th. February 1844 and is one of the oldest Scottish Lodges in the West Indies. The Lodge meets in the Masonic Temple in Spry Street, which is also the home of the five other Scottish Lodges in the District as well as Lodges from the English Constitution, including the Albion Lodge No. 196 the oldest Lodge in the area Chartered in 1790 by the Ancient Grand Lodge of England.  

At the meeting of Lodge Scotia which I attended Bro. Mike Williams, W.J.W. gave an excellent presentation of the first degree tracing board. At the previous meeting the Lodge had Initiated a Candidate and it was their custom to instruct the E.A. in the various lessons of the E.A. tracing board before the E.A. received his F.C. degree. 

The R.W.M. Bro. Basil Sandiford and Brethren of the Lodge made me very welcome and at the close charged me to extend fraternal greetings to the R.W.M. and Brethren of Lodge St. Bryde.     

I am indebted to Bro. Michael Ridley, P.M. who collated a wealth of interesting papers on Freemasonry in Barbados and presented them to me on my visit. These will feature in future issues of The Right Angle. 

The Temple was originally built in 1732 as Harrison Free School a three story building. It was badly damaged in the great hurricane of 1780 which destroyed most of Bridgetown. The property was repaired a cost of £550 which was a huge sum in 1780. The school fell into disrepair and was sold to the Masonic Body in 1871. It has been used since that date by the Lodges of both Constitutions and other Masonic Orders in Barbados.

The Temple consists of the first floor which has a large room used for the Lodge Harmony and dining room. The Temple is on the top floor and is richly decorated with pillars and a painted ceiling representing the heavens. Another feature is the embroidered banners and painted Past Masters Rolls of various Lodges which adorn the walls.

The Temple also supports a collection of interesting old photos of Brethren in the regalia of several Masonic bodies. The Temple stands in Spry St., in between St. Michaels Cathedral     and a new corporate banking building is one of the oldest buildings on the island. The Masonic Body which owns the Temple (all the various Lodges and Orders) has recently sold the building to the Bank next door.

The bank intend completely renovating the building and turning the top floor into a museum and to use the ground floor for corporate dining. The bank are in turn financing half the cost of the new Temple which is presently being built on the edge of town at a total cost of $2.4 million dollars ! But perhaps most interesting was the Lodge Scotia tracing boards which are known as The Triptych.

The Triptych of Lodge Scotia No. 340 as they are referred as are an unusual set of three tracing boards. Bro. N. Atwell, D.G. Sec. and P.M. of Lodge Albion No. 196 presented a paper on the explanation of the boards. He had difficulty in identifying their origin and had them photographed and sent to the Grand Lodge of England for an expert opinion. The Grand Lodge identified them as being American in origin and of an unusual design, the date was put at before 1824 as there is a similar tracing board contained in the "The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor" by Bro. Jeremy Cross in that year.

The Triptych is divided into three parts the first, second & third degree tracing boards. The sections can be slotted together to create a large fresco awash with Masonic symbolism. This was the first time that I had seen a tracing board of the style and it was a very unusual design. The Lodge also had on display a set of three original Harris Tracing Boards dated around 1860 and very similar to the boards that we use in Lodge St. Bryde.

The Photos in the centre section show the exterior of the Lodge. The main Temple, the Tracing Boards and the banners of Lodge Scotia No. 340 and the District of Barbados banner.