The Astede Lodge Benevolent FundReg. Charity 218915 · Est. 1963

Programmes & initiatives

Four small named funds, kept in one ledger — each with its own quiet purpose, and all four served by the same kitchen-table meeting in February, May, August and November.

We do not run programmes in the modern charity sense — we have no offices, no service users, no contracts with statutory bodies. We hold four small purposes, each a column in the Trustees' ring-binder, and each a part of what we have always done. They are set out below, with the most recent year's spend and a paragraph or two of plain account.

A wide editorial photo of the Trustees' ring-binder open on a kitchen table, four tabbed sections visible, a fountain pen resting in the margin.
A Brother's apron folded neatly on a hallway chair beside a cup of tea cooling, low morning light through a sash window.

Fund · 01 · since 1963

Brethren in Need

The original purpose of the trust. A confidential, one-off helping hand for serving and former Brethren of Astede Lodge when illness, bereavement, a redundancy, a burst pipe or a short financial knock makes the next few weeks harder than they ought to be. Most gifts from this fund are small — usually between £20 and £75 — and are sent within a working week of the Lodge Almoner first hearing of the difficulty.

We do not means-test. We do not require receipts. The Lodge Almoner brings the case to the Trustees on the strength of a confidential conversation; the Trustees consider, agree, and write a cheque. The cheque is then sent with a short handwritten note, signed by both Trustees, addressed to the Brother by his first name.

  • 2024 grants paid: 4
  • 2024 total awarded: £140
  • Average gift, last five years: £38
  • Largest single gift since 1963: £200 (the storm of 1987)

Supported by · The Lodge Almoner, the Lodge Secretary, and the Provincial Grand Almoner of Surrey

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

Fund · 02 · since 1969

The Widows' Hand

The Widows' Hand is the fund out of which we send the annual Christmas envelopes to the widows and dependants of former Astede Brethren. It is also the fund we use when an anniversary of bereavement falls — we keep a small list of dates — or when a widow tells us, in a phone call we have come to expect each January, that the coal bill has come earlier than she could manage. The envelopes are written by hand, each one, by the Lodge Almoner at his own kitchen table in the week before Advent Sunday.

In 2024 we sent twelve Christmas envelopes; the largest was £25, the smallest £10, and four contained an extra card on the anniversary of a husband's passing. We do not write of the names; we keep them in a small ring-bound book that lives in the Almoner's desk and is replaced every five years.

  • Widows on our list, December 2024: 12
  • 2024 total sent in Christmas envelopes: £180
  • Years the list has not gone unwritten: 56

Supported by · The Lodge Almoner and the Trustees

A volunteer at Leatherhead Foodbank packing tins into a cardboard box, golden afternoon light through warehouse windows, a tabard hung on a hook behind.

Fund · 03 · since 1996

The Almoner's Discretion

Each year, at the Trustees' February meeting, we set aside up to a third of the year's gifts for small grants to non-Masonic local charities — usually a foodbank, a community garden, a parish hall heating fund, a school's hardship pot. The Lodge Almoner brings a shortlist of three or four causes; the Trustees pick one or two; cheques go out before Easter.

We have given to Leatherhead Foodbank every spring since 2010. We have supported the Fetcham Village Hall heating fund twice. We sent a small cheque to a community garden in Bookham in 2019 and again in 2022. The most recent gift in this fund was £50 to the Surrey Hills Hospice's local outreach in March 2025.

  • 2024 grants from this fund: 3
  • 2024 total awarded: £75
  • Local charities supported since 1996: 14
  • Geography: four parishes — Fetcham, Ashtead, Bookham, Leatherhead

Supported by · Leatherhead Foodbank, Fetcham Village Hall & Community Trust, Parish of Ashtead St Giles, Bookham Community Garden

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

Fund · 04 · since 2008

The Festival Fund

The Festival Fund is the small annual contribution we make to the Surrey Festival — the rolling appeal of the Province of Surrey to the Masonic Charitable Foundation. Each Festival lasts approximately five years; ours is one of several hundred small Surrey lodges that pool a modest annual cheque to fund the MCF's national grant-making work in education, hospitals, hospices and family relief.

Our annual contribution from the fund is currently £30, voted at the February Trustees' meeting. It is small in itself, but joined with the cheques of hundreds of other lodges it becomes part of one of the United Kingdom's largest charitable contributions year on year. The MCF reports back to Lodges on the work funded; we publish the relevant short paragraph in our spring dispatch.

  • 2024 contribution: £30
  • Cumulative contributions since 2008: £420
  • The MCF's 2024 charitable spend across the UK: £40+ million

Supported by · The Masonic Charitable Foundation, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Surrey

A note on what we do not fund

The lines we draw.

It is as important to be plain about what we will not do as about what we will. We will not fund work outside the four parishes — Fetcham, Ashtead, Bookham, Leatherhead — even if the cause is excellent. We will not fund political campaigning, religious proselytising, or organisations whose principal beneficiaries are outside our geography. We will not fund building works. We will not match-fund larger grants from larger charities; we are too small for it to mean anything.

We will reply to every enquiry, however, even if we cannot help — and we will, where we can, suggest a larger fund that might.

  • Confidential Brother aid — within Astede Lodge
  • Widows' Christmas envelopes — every year
  • Small local grants — within four parishes
  • Festival Fund contribution — to the MCF
  • Work outside the parishes — always declined
  • Political campaigning — never funded
  • Building works — out of our scale
  • Match-funding — too small to matter

Apply quietly · partner respectfully

If you know a Brother or a local charity who might be helped.

The Lodge Almoner reads every confidential enquiry himself. Partner charities should write to the Trustees by post or use our partnership enquiry form.

Write to the Almoner Partner enquiry