Astede Lodge Benevolent Fund · Charity 218915

A quiet lamp, kept lit in the Lodge room since 1963 — small in scale, steady in habit, and answering at the door when a Brother knocks.

We are a small Masonic benevolent fund based at 85 Kennel Lane in Fetcham. We help Brethren of Astede Lodge and their families through times of difficulty, and each year we give what we can to a handful of local and Masonic good causes.

Make a gift Read our mission

Read on

63 years on the Charity Register · 1963 — 2026

"We help in small sums, by hand, and without fuss. It is the work of a fund kept by Brothers for Brothers — and for the place we belong to."

Mission overview

A fund kept in the old way — confidential, particular, neighbourly.

Three plain commitments shape every decision the Trustees make. We have not changed them since the fund was registered with the Charity Commission on the fourth of February, 1963.

No. 01

Brethren first, and their families.

When a Brother of Astede Lodge — or his widow, his children, his dependants — meets a stretch of difficulty, we listen first and act quickly. The help is small, often a single envelope, and always given without record beyond the Trustees' minute book.

No. 02

Rooted in this corner of Surrey.

Fetcham, Ashtead, Great and Little Bookham, and Leatherhead — the parishes a Brother could walk between in a long Saturday afternoon. Our small grants to other charities go to organisations within an easy bus ride of the Lodge room.

No. 03

A small fund, faithfully kept.

We do not advertise, we do not fundraise nationally, and we have no paid staff. Our annual expenditure runs in the low hundreds of pounds; our purpose is to keep that small total turning, year after year, into someone else's quiet relief.

The year in figures · 31 December 2024

Small numbers, faithfully reported.

£0 Grants paid out · last reporting year

0 Hands the fund reached · families & charities

0 Years on the Charity Register

0 Trustees, signing in pairs

All figures drawn from our 2024 annual return to the Charity Commission. Read the full report.

Brethren in Need · Winter 2026 Appeal

A small fund, a winter, a few families we already know by name.

Our Almoner keeps a quiet list. Each year — usually in the weeks after Remembrance — we set aside a small target for confidential winter gifts to Brethren and their widows: an oil top-up here, a fortnight's electricity there, a pair of warm boots for a grandchild. Will you help us reach our target this year?

Give to the winter appeal

Raised so far£412

Target · £800 51% reached

Every gift to this appeal is acknowledged by hand. We will write to you in the spring with a plain account of where the money went.

What we do

Four small funds, kept in one ledger.

The Trustees of The Astede Lodge Benevolent Fund hold four small named purposes. They are described, in plain English, on the Programmes page — and in shorter form below.

Hand-written ledger pages on a kitchen table, with a Brother's apron folded beside a cup of tea.

Fund · 01

Brethren in Need

Confidential, one-off help for serving and former Brethren of Astede Lodge when illness, bereavement or a short financial knock makes the next few weeks harder than usual.

A small posy of garden flowers on a hallway table by an open front door, low afternoon light.

Fund · 02

The Widows' Hand

A small fund kept for the widows and dependants of past Brethren — a Christmas envelope, a coal bill in February, a card on the anniversary of a husband's passing.

A volunteer at Leatherhead Foodbank packing tins into a cardboard box, golden afternoon light through warehouse windows.

Fund · 03

The Almoner's Discretion

Small annual gifts to local good causes — usually a foodbank, a community garden, a parish hall heating fund — chosen by the Almoner at the Lodge's first meeting of the year.

A printed Festival programme in a Brother's hands at a Surrey Provincial banquet, candle-lit table.

Fund · 04

The Festival Fund

Our annual contribution to the Masonic Charitable Foundation's Surrey Festival — pooled with hundreds of small Surrey lodges to fund national Masonic relief work.

In quiet company

A handful of local and Masonic partners, named with their permission.

In their own words

Four small voices — a widow, a foodbank coordinator, a parish priest, a Past Master.

"The Trustees rang on a Tuesday and the envelope arrived on the Friday. There was a hand-written note inside it, signed by both of them. I have kept the note. It is the kindest thing I have received since my Tom died."

"It is the same envelope each spring — small, but the timing of it is uncanny. The Astede Brothers seem to know we will be short of tins again by Easter."

"They never write of themselves and they never ask for thanks. Once a year, an envelope with a cheque, and a single sheet of paper: 'For the parish heating fund — with the Brothers' compliments.' That is the whole of it."

"I was sworn in as Almoner in 1996 and the box looked the same then as it does now — a tin biscuit box with our name on a sticky label. It still holds the cheque book, the cash float, and a few thank-you cards we have kept."