ACCORDING to common folklore, freemasons spend their lives hopping around big country pads with one trouser leg rolled up and knotted handkerchiefs on their heads, giving fellow members hefty backhanders.

Judges, policemen, magistrates, politicians and doctors are apparently all at it, desperate to join one of the largest private clubs with tentacles throughout the British establishment. Even the Duke of Kent is The Grand Master of the country's Freemasons.

The myths surrounding the organisation's secret rituals, ceremonies and secret handshakes are legendary. The freemasons have been accused of being an impenetrable old boys network organisation with a 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' code of conduct.

For the last few years, Chief Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police have made no secret of the fact that they would prefer their officers not to join the club.

The Government is looking into introducing laws to force members of the police and the judiciary to declare any freemason membership, but Beaconsfield freemason Lord Burnham is trying to beat the Government at its own game.

Recently installed as Buckinghamshire's Provincial Grand Master, the 6th Lord Burnham, of Woodlands Farm, Beaconsfield, is planning to throw open the doors of the town's Lodge next month.

On August 16, anyone and everyone will be able to have a look around the Lodge buildings and meet some real-life freemasons in the organisation's first ever open day in the town.

Lord Burnham, 66, who has been a freemason since 1984, explains: "I want to get a lot more people involved in freemasonry, including young people. We are a band of brothers, effectively, and there is a need to include more people.

"I am very much in favour of making the freemasons more open to show that there is nothing sinister about us, nothing for people to be worried about.

"There are other things which I believe need to be altered to keep freemasonry going, including changing the times of the meetings which we hold. These often start at 5pm, with the ceremony, which can take up to two-and-a-half hours, and then dinner.

"This is obviously a very difficult time for people who have to go to work and it will be one of the things that I hope to bring in to bring the membership more up to date."

Most people may not realise this, but freemasons pour a lot of their energy into fund-raising for charities.

Each county, or Province, has its own central freemason charity, called The Grand Charity. Buckinghamshire's Grand Charity has pledged to raise £2 million for good causes by next June.

In 1997, The Grand Charity donated £5,600 to local hospices and local freemasons have donated £274,000 over the last seven years to charities in the county.

Charities which have benefited from this generosity include The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, the MacMillan Nurses, Marlow Hospital and Age Concern as well as Chiltern Cheshire Homes.

Lord Burnham says: "We are in the middle of a five-year campaign over the whole of Buckinghamshire, the Province, to raise this £2 million for charity -- it's what is called our Festival. I think we will just about make the total, but it will be quite tight -- we have already raised about £1.4 million, so we just need another big push.

"I believe that the Lodges must support their local charities, such as the hospices, as well as the old people's homes and the luncheon clubs."

Lord Burnham is also anxious to dispel the myth that the freemasons are just another part of the 'old boys network', guaranteeing privileges and backhanders to anyone accepted as a member.

He says: "I suppose you could call it mainly a social sort of club.

"The freemasons have been in a lot of trouble recently, with the Parliamentary committee and the totally unjustifiable claims that membership of the freemasons is used unfairly and that members of the freemasons should have to declare it.

"Our answer is that if there is any good reason why someone should reveal they are members then we will. But, for example, no one is forced to declare that they are a member of the Rotary Club or any other organisation like that.

"We have this reputation as being a secret society and we do have certain signs and rituals, but there are very strict rules against doing each other favours. We certainly do nothing which could be seen as being harmful to anyone else."

Both Lord Burnham's father and brother were Provincial Grand Masters of the Buckinghamshire Masons. Lord Burnham will have to retire from the post when he reaches 75.

"Being a freemason has been a thing in the family for years. Both my father and my brother were Provincial Grand Masters of Buckinghamshire, and it was something I have always been interested in.

"I have got an awful lot of fellowship from being a mason, it is good value and great fun. There is a certain togetherness in being a mason, there is something in the common rituals.

"There are three degrees of mason and everyone has to pass all those before they become fully-fledged. The further you go after that depends on things like commitment and how much work you actually do for charity."

Each different degree of mason has its own dress code, including the apron. This varies in colour and embroidery -- the higher up you go, the more ornate your apron.

Lord Burnham says: "Some of the rituals, seen in isolation, could be considered to be comic. They are all based on the building of King Solomon's Temple in the Bible. They are symbolic and concern building an edifice together.

"One of the things we do is we vow to spread happiness around, to do something for the general good.

"It does no harm and there are certainly no secrets which are damaging to the general public."

% The Beaconsfield Lodge, which meets in The Old School, Windsor End, will hold its open day on August 16. For details, call (01494) 670194

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