Freemasonry in the Community has been growing over the past few years and I last helped decorating an Old Peoples’ home in Gerrards Cross.

This year the Province found a new project much closer to home and very relevant to our lodge, being on the doorstep as it were to Marlow Bridge. The Project was a stretch of garden adjacent to Marlow Bridge and Tierney Court. What at first glance appeared to be a simple job turned into a mammoth task over 3 days and involved some dozen helpers.

The task was co-ordinated by Tim Anders and Ivan Gould who coerced a number of helpers from the various lodges who meet at the Marlow Centre.

On the 4^th & 5^th of May Roger Page and myself (Richard Newell) joined the team to start the reclamation of the garden which has been sadly neglected over the past few years, as you can see from the attached photo a fair amount of green waste was generated (approx 16 cubic metre bags and 20 smaller bags were filled) and removed to the tip.

We were encouraged by a number of church goers on the Sunday and later on in the morning by visitors going for a stroll by the river. The residents of Tierney Court appeared a little apprehensive of the motley crew of men near their property but on finding out our intentions were appreciative of the work we were doing, the fact that the Deputy Mayor of Marlow Bob Johnson who is a member of Marlow Valley Lodge was helping also aided in promoting our work.

W Bro Richard Newell. Marlow Bridge Lodge 8616