Here follows a text of the PGM's Dedication address:
 

"It is with great pleasure to be invited to re-dedicate the Nailsea Hall Tracing Boards this evening. Lodge Tracing Boards as we know them, have been a regular feature of lodge furniture since the early 19^th century when many of the designs we are familiar with today were created. Tracing Boards are some of the immovable jewels of the lodge, open for the brethren to moralise on. They are the natural successor of the floor drawings of Masonic symbols used in the earliest lodges which were either traced in chalk on the floor or painted on a cloth. This set was designed for Tyntesfield Lodge by Bro Henry Armitage Onn in 1922. Bro Onn, a Founder, was a lithographic artist who was apprenticed in Bristol and worked for E S & A Robinson. He was born in 1864 in Moulton, Northamptonshire and came to Bristol with his father, a head master, around 1880. It was Bro Onn who also created the template for stars that adorns the ceiling here at Nailsea.

 

The Board’s have been re-furbished by donations from the lodges, brethren and the Board of Management at the instigation of the Lodge of Instruction. Notable champions have been W Bro’s Wayne Pearce, Nick Britton, the late Stan Wills and latterly Simon Eden. It is most gratifying to see this worthwhile project come to fruition and I have the greatest pleasure in declaring them once again fit for purpose.

 

I shall be dedicating each Board with words appropriate to the Degree. Most of us will be familiar with the lectures associated with the 2^nd & 3^rd Degree Boards, that of the 1^st degree is less well known. It describes in some detail the symbolism of a freemason’s lodge and its furniture. It is described in outline when a Grand Lodge Certificate is presented. The full description is to be found as an appendix to the Emulation Ritual."

The PGM opened and closed in all three Degrees and dedicated each of the three tracing boards with prayers of dedication led by the Provincial Grand Chaplain. W Bros I Cox, C Martin and B Scott of the St Cecelia Choir provided beautiful and harmonious choral work accompanied by Organist A Clegg.

After the Lodge was closed there followed a very convivial Festive Board enjoyed by all with excellent fayre and fellowship - the culmination of a super evening containing history, the Dedication of Tracing Boards Ceremony, Choral work and Ritual.

Thanks to Peter Wootton PPrJGD for the story and pictures