Down the Old Kent Road to Gillingham,
 
Saturday 17th February 2018
It was a dark, cold and wet winter Saturday morning when two Allied Masons from West Lancashire set out on a long journey to Gillingham to attend the Kent District Meeting. The DGP couldn’t attend on this occasion as he was having a little holiday break in Iceland with his wife Sally.
Both the travellers, William Richmond and Ray Pye had been on Masonic business the night before, meaning both had got to bed late and then needed to arise from their slumber for a very early start on Saturday morning. No time for breakfast, but never mind the bacon butties on board the Virgin West Coast Train were something to look forward to.
When Ray boarded, William had already struck up a conversation with a Lady in an adjacent seat who was going to London for an Archer’s convention of all things. We eventually decided to visit the buffet car, a little too early for table service, but really looking forward to a bacon buttie. “Sorry sir no warm food at the moment”, we have to make do with a muffin and a cup of tea. Never mind said William, we’ve plenty of time between trains in London, and we’ll get something then!
It was a pleasant journey down to London, even without the bacon sarnie (where is the DGP with his emergency rations when you need him??). As we travelled further south, the cold, dark and wet start gave way to a strange looking orange ball rising in the sky, William explained it was something called the sun, not often seen in Lancashire. As this strange light rose above the yardarm, its brightness glinted on the frosty fields and farmsteads, and lit up the great steel arch at the front of Wembley Stadium. The day started to take on a much pleasanter vista and the tiredness of the early start started to evaporate with the morning mist
Arriving in London Euston, a 600m hike brought us to St Pancras where we were to catch our next train to Gillingham. We had time to spare so this was the opportunity to buy a bacon barm!! What a fine station St Pancras is, well worth a look, but one of the problems is that in spending a fortune doing it up, they had to get their money back. So the spacious surroundings are taken up with very expensive outlets catering for international travellers and not canny (I didn’t say mean!) operators from the north of England. No little buffet bar in sight, so unless you wanted to spend a small fortune on scrambled eggs ala fungi (is that egg and mushrooms?), I’m afraid you’ll be out of luck. Still there could well be something that smells like bacon at the Masonic Hall in Gillingham. We lived in hope.
While we were wiling away the minutes at St Pancras, we had a good look at the Bronze statues dotted about and there was a particular war memorial of a soldier and his wife which was very striking, see what you think.
The train to Gillingham was uneventful and then a short ten minutes or so walk brought us to the Masonic Hall. I’m afraid it was only tea and biscuits when we got there but a very warm welcome as is always the case at these meetings. The District Meeting was very enjoyable, meeting up with old friends and making new.
 
William and Ray were shown to their seats just behind and to the right of the District Grand Prefect. We were seated alongside visiting DGP’s and Deputies, a grandstand view of proceedings. As always, we were well looked after at the Festive Board, and the hunger pangs were quickly quenched. Interestingly, at dinner, Ray was introduced to Ray Hudson, a Masonic historian and writer of a number of Masonic books, and amongst the discussion on all things Masonic, he gave an interesting insight into an aspect of the RAM ceremony which won’t be universally known and is worthy of presenting as a paper. I know it’s not AMD but we all enjoy these different masonic orders, so watch this space.
Time to go home, and the return journey was uneventful until we arrived at Euston Station when we found that there was significant disruption to services as a result of a fatality on the line at Watford. We were advised to go to other London Stations to wend our way home, but William was having none of this, sit tight was his advice, they’ll have to look after us! What sage advice, because, only slightly behind time, the trains started to roll again, but with a twist - because of the difficulties experienced at Watford there was no food on the train apart from apples and bananas!! This was made worse by a continuous update of texts to William from our DGP telling us what he and Sally were eating for dinner – lobster bisque, slow cooked salmon, can’t remember the sweet but it  sounded very exotic and would have been at home in the splendid St Pancras environs.
Ray arrived home and immediately made, you’ve guessed it, – bacon on toast! Apparently, William had to battle to get his car released from a car park at Lancaster Station, the staff had locked the car park gate. He was scheduled to attend a party that evening, but I’m not sure whether he made it, as it had been a long, tiring day. Never mind, another excellent and eventful day out, here’s to the next one.
Words and Photographs by the Assistant to the Assistant Southern AMD Correspondent