No mystery in the help given to families by the Oddfellows

Yet they've been around in Worcester for more than 160 years and, at their pinnacle, had at least 40 lodges in the Faithful City and surrounding villages.

But, as with the Freemasons, the Independent Order of Oddfellows share the image or perception of being a "secret society".

True, the Oddfellows have all along observed their own distinctive rituals and secret signs, passwords and knocks on doors for entry, but the overriding objective of the society has always been the welfare of members and their families. Down the years, millions of members and their dependants have benefited from practical help and cash aid from the society in times of dire need.

The roots of Oddfellowship are subject to much speculation. Some historians suggest they can trace their history back to 587BC and to exiles in Babylon, who formed themselves into a brotherhood for mutual support and defence. Then, there are other historians who assert that Roman legionnaires established the first lodges of Oddfellows in Britain around 100AD.

Nevertheless, most leading Oddfellows today prefer to rely on much stronger evidence which indicates that the society began in London in the 17th Century and became officially established with the formation of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows in 1810. It's believed the name Oddfellows is derived from the fact that the society drew its members from across a wide range of different trades and from all walks of life.

Originally, and for much of their existence, the Oddfellows were a mutual benefit society, largely for the working classes. The organisation was born at a time of desperate need for very many in Britain when, if a man lost his job, he and his family did not eat and, if they could not pay their rent, they were thrown out into the streets and often ended up in the workhouse.

Little wonder, therefore, that the Oddfellows answered a pressing social need in setting up an organisation for the working man so that he could combine with others for mutual support and aid, putting money aside each week as essential cover for bad times and to avoid starvation and homelessness.

Contributing "a bob or two" a week to the society ensured that members received sick pay and medical attention and also vital cash if they were out of work. Members could also contribute to provide themselves with pensions, annuities, endowments and death benefits - in essence, the Oddfellows created an insurance-based organisation guaranteeing members crucial cover in difficult times or at the end of their working lives.

Boxes went round at lodge meetings to collect members' contributions for those vital benefits at modest costs. Membership of lodges often passed from father to son as generations of the same family remained loyal to the Oddfellows.

When the Knightwick Sanatorium for TB victims was opened in 1902, Worcester Oddfellows subsidised several members to receive treatment there, and equal financial support was given to the former Worcester Dispensary in Shaw Street. Members paid in 1d or 2d a week in order to have prescriptions from the Dispensary whenever they were ill and needed them.

In the immediate wake of the First World War, the Oddfellows nationally set up an Orphans' Gift Scheme to provide schooling and clothing grants for those whose fathers were members of the society and had lost their fathers on the battlefields of Europe. The scheme still survives today, now offering education grants to children of members who die prematurely.

Retired teacher James (Jim) Tolley, a current Trustee of the Worcester District of Oddfellows, has personal memories from his youth of paying half-a-crown each month and receiving 10 shillings a week if ever he was off sick from work.

He recalls too going to see a Dr Watson, whose surgery was opposite the Alice Ottley School in the Upper Tything and who, he believes, was the Oddfellows' family doctor.

In the early 19th Century, Oddfellowship spread rapidly from its founding base in Manchester and, by 1828, there was a Kidderminster District with several lodges, covering most of Worcestershire and part of Shropshire.

The first Oddfellows' lodge to be set up in Worcester was the Sir John Moore which held its inaugural meeting at the Horn and Trumpet Inn, Angel Street on August 17, 1840.

The creation of four other local lodges followed in the next two years - 1841 and 42, Tything of Whistones, Saint John's, Hope of Malvern and the Hope of Worcester lodge whose members met at the Punchbowl Inn opposite the Cathedral and alongside the Lich Gate.

Initially, all these five Worcester area lodges came under the wing of the Oddfellows' extensive Kidderminster District. In 1843, however, the Worcester District of Oddfellows was created as an off-shoot from the Kidderminster District and, in time, there were 24 lodges in and around the Faithful City and 10 at Malvern, all combining to produce a total membership for the Worcester District of more than 6,000.

In their heyday, the Oddfellows went on to have at least 40 lodges in Worcester and hamlets and villages all around such as Fernhill Heath, Kempsey and Callow End - firm testimony to the determination of working folk to combine for their mutual aid in hard times.

The year 1865 was a major milestone in Oddfellowship for Worcester when it was chosen as the venue for the Society's Annual Moveable Conference - a large-scale event attended by members from all over the country and by many local VIPs and civic dignitaries.

The main focus of the June 1865 celebrations was a Gala on the Worcester Pleasure Ground which then covered the Arboretum. The festivities began with a procession through the city's streets led by the Worcestershire Yeomanry Cavalry Band, the Worcestershire Militia Drum and Fife Band, the Rhine Brass and String Band, the Pershore Rifle Corps Band and the Worcestershire Union Drum and Fife Band.

A large poster for the event, which still survives, lists some of the attractions at the Gala as "Balloon Ascents, Messrs Abbot and Stevens with their negro entertainment, and Mr and Mrs Ben Stanley, dancers and comic duettists whose songs will include 'the Broken Hearted Butcher Boy' and 'the Stage Struck Barber". The day ended with "Dancing on the Greensward and Fireworks by Mr J. Wilder". There was also a Public Banquet at the Guildhall.

I have delved into the bound archives of Berrow's Worcester Journal, the world's oldest surviving newspaper, and found very lengthy reports of the Oddfellows' 1865 Gala and Conference in the edition of June 10 that year.

The Berrow's reported: "Thousands of excursionists arrived by trains at the Shrub Hill and Foregate Street stations, and the streets of Worcester were gaily decorated with flags and banners to honour the event. The thoroughfares were thronged with folk from an early hour on what proved to be a gloriously fine day.

"The 15-acre Worcester Pleasure Grounds were crowded with spectators for the wide variety of attractions and entertainments, and it was very pleasant to observe so many children present, The day ended with a grand fireworks display at 10 pm."

In its editiorial for June 10, 1865, Berrow's Journal also paid glowing tribute to the Oddfellows as an organisation: "We heartily congratulate the Oddfellows upon their great meeting at Worcester. It is many years since a gathering of such social import took place in this city.

"As an institution almost wholly governed by working men, Oddfellowship is a monument of industry, perseverance, providence and administrative talent. The members of the Society number 380,000 but, calculating that five persons are dependent upon one adult, this gives upwards of a-million-and-a-half men, women and children interested in the welfare of the Society.

"The principles of the Oddfellows are the best and noblest that can actuate humanity. The only wish of the members is to emulate each other in good works, to visit the sick, soothe the distressed and to assist the widow and orphan.

"Like a goodly tree in fruitful soil, long may the Order continue to flourish, striking deeper roots with every year and putting out its arms wider and wider so that the sick and distressed, the aged and the widow, may find continued shelter and protection from the storms of life."

By the time the Victorian era was drawing towards its close, the Oddfellows had widened out its membership also to encompass the middle classes and even some city and county gentry.

Among leading local figures in the society around that time were Stanley (later Earl) Baldwin of Astley, three times Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Rowland Hill of Kidderminster, father of the Penny Post.

Stanley Baldwin, in particular, was "a very active Oddfellow", and a lodge bearing his name still flourishes at Stourport-on-Severn, as does one at Kidderminster named Lord Hill.

Down the decades, Worcester mayors, doctors and other distinguished local people have held top posts with the Worcester District of Oddfellows.

The dawn of the 20th Century also saw the introduction of women's lodges by the Oddfellows, though these were to be strictly female-only, with the mainstream lodges remaining as exclusive male bastions. It was not about 50 years ago that the society fully admitted "fellowesses" - in other words, women were allowed to join men's lodges, a change not seen in American lodges until just two years ago.

Traditionally, lodges have tended to use inns and pubs as their meeting places, though there was one at Worcester in times past whose members were very much against "strong drink" and gathered instead at a former coffee house in Lowesmoor.

In about 1920, a substantial three-storey property on the east side of New Street was acquired as the Oddfellows Hall for the Worcester District, and for decades it was a hive of activity as the busy venue for meetings and social events.

It had its own bar and a dance hall which was also for some years as the base for Jack McGrath's Dance School.

However, far-reaching changes were in store for the Oddfellows with the arrival of Britain's Welfare State in 1948 and the introduction of compulsory National Insurance payments for pensions, health care, unemployment and other benefits - all the "insurance" essentials which the society had provided for members as "mutual aid" over the previous century or more.

The result over the ensuing years was a significant drop in membership and a fundamental shift in emphasis with regard to the aims of the Oddfellows.

Under their new slogan "Making Friends and Helping People," the Oddfellows re-focussed their work on advice line phone services, help with care and health concerns, organising regular social events at local level, investing in medical research, and providing such benefits as convalescent care, emergency cash aid, educational grants, legal advice, and funeral expenses cover.

From the peak of 40 Oddfellow lodges in the Worcester District, 10 now survive including one at Fernhill Heath and five in the Faithful City - Pride of Worcester, Good Intent, Lyttelton, Hope of Worcester and Albert Preece.

And, following a record influx of new members in the past year (236), the total membership of the society in the Worcester District is now a substantial 1,136.

Even so, it was decided three years ago to sell off the Oddfellows Hall in New Street for development because the building had become too large for the Worcester District's present day requirements. The premises are adjacent to Chicago Rock.

The Oddfellows' District Committee of Management now meets at the Barbourne Ex-servicemen's Club, while the Prince of Wales pub at Warndon and the Swan with Two Nicks in New Street serve as meeting places for two lodges.

In 1969, the Worcester District was filled with pride when one of its members, the late Brother GP (Pat) Cooper was elected as Grand Master of the Order - the Society's top post. It placed him for his term of office in the chair of the Society's Board of Directors in Manchester. A celebration dinner and dance was held in his honour at Worcester Guildhall in October 1969.

The Oddfellows remain one of the oldest and largest fraternal organisations in the world with 100,000 members in the UK and more than half-a-million members in 20 countries across the globe forming its universal brotherhood.

This article was compiled from an afternoon's chat with two officers of the Worcester District - Trustee Jim Tolley and the Provincial Corresponding Secretary John Bradley of Worcester, who is, in effect, the District's secretary and treasurer. Both have been members of the Oddfellows for 50 years.

Jim Tolley suggests the basic difference between the Oddfellows and the Freemasons is in the status of their members. The Freemasons tend, he feels, to more attract top people from industry, commerce and the professions.

John Bradley admits that the Oddfellows remain "mostly unknown to the wider public". He often has people telephoning him to ask what the Oddfellows are and what do they do? He accepts too that the Oddfellows have long been looked upon from outside as a secret society with their own rituals and secret signs, though he stresses that these are not accorded so much significance these days.

"I've always been proud to be an Oddfellow though I accept that the name has come to have other connotations in modern times and not everyone wants to have the Oddfellow label."

John says the society has perhaps been too introspective but, like the Freemasons, is now pursuing more openness and seeking wider publicity for its work and activities.

He emphasises that the District organises a packed calendar of social events such as dinners, outings, skittles evenings, coffee mornings, and wine and cheese parties. For some events, local Oddfellows also combine with the Worcester Heart Support Group.

The full admission of women and the creation of mixed lodges not long after the last war has been a great success, says John, with the fair sex taking a full and effective part in the organisation and serving terms in some of its top posts.

John Bradley's working career was spent as a local government officer, for a long time in the City Treasurer's Department at Worcester Guildhall.

Jim Tolley's grandfather and father who both had his Christian names - James Henry - worked for "Pumpy" Thomas, the windmill and water pump manufacturer at Worcester, his grandfather as foreman blacksmith and his father as an engineer until he moved to HW Wards.

Jim himself started as an engineer with Wards and then moved to Auto Electric before three years in the RAF. He later joined Nuway Heating but then had a complete career change and spent 22 years until his retirement as a maths and science teacher at Aston Fields, Bromsgrove.