The Lodge

April 1939

South Yorkshire Times, April 14th 1939.

Buffaloes are in the news this week with a number of unusual records. Mrs. G. Latham, hostess of the Star of Bolton Lodge of the R.A.O.B. and wife of the Landlord of the Cross Daggers Hotel, has been presented with a magnificent jewelled decoration in recognition of her long and meritorious association with the lodge.

A member who was present at the ceremony told me it was one of the finest decorations he had ever seen and it is considered to be the only one of its kind in Britain. Mrs. Latham’s husband is a Knight within the Order, she is the daughter of a prominent Hoyland Common Buffalo, and her grandfather was also a distinctive member.

The Goldthorpe Pride Lodge has three current Claims to distinction . They both the weekly registration record for the whole of the order – there are over 60 members per week over an average of a year; the oldest active buffalo within the order, Mr Abraham Brierley, an 85 year old miner, of Railway Terrace, Goldthorpe, an ex-championship Walker who has never missed a Lodge night and who never failed to give their members a song; and the smallest buffalo in the world. Mr Harold Woodcock, a 37 year old market trader, of Taylor Street, Thurnscoe. Mr Woodcock has achieved notoriety in the past owing to his claim for the title of the world’s smallest market trader.