TV programme turns to Scunthorpe Freemason for help
Scunthorpe Freemason Pete Adams is to feature on TV next week in the latest series of Salvage Hunters: The Restorers on the Quest Channel.
His specialism is the particularly niche area of crew lamps as used by the RAF on bombing missions during WW2.
After some time filming, the programme aired at 9pm on Wednesday 24th April, when viewers were able to get a glimpse of an interest that was awakened a couple of years ago when Pete, a PM of Pharos Lodge 6450, was looking inside an Avro Shackleton aircraft at Newark Air Museum. The programme is now available on catch up TV at https://www.questod.co.uk
“I was interested by the crew workstation lamps, and was really impressed by the design – simple, strong but lightweight. Form elegantly followed function.”
This interest developed and he now collects and restores all kinds of vintage aircraft workstation lamps in his small post-retirement business. He said: “Some examples are very rare and go back to the glamourous inter-war flying boat era. Spares are either scarce or non-existent, and I am in the process of replicating many rare items.
“Along the way, I have made contact with many different organisations and aircraft enthusiasts and now seem to be regarded as something of a specialist in this niche area. For instance, a major film studio commissioned me to make some replica Navigator lamps – and I’m to appear on television too!
“For me, it’s vital that history is preserved, and I prefer working items to inert displays in cabinets. These elegant lamps can be redeployed in a domestic or office setting and it’s interesting to speculate where they travelled and what they encountered in their former lives.
“Perhaps, subconsciously, I’ve drifted into a hobby that will be easier to manhandle than big lumps of motorbike and car when I get older.” So that’s Light Work in its most literal sense, then. Pete seems to have taken his Lodge’s banner seriously when it says: “Let Your Light So Shine Before Men That They May See Your Good Works”.
In the picture Pete is seen with some of his lamps during a Scunthorpe Masonic Centre event called ‘Beyond the Ritual’, at which brethren shared information about their hobbies, and raised money for the LMCA in the process. Pete’s website is Retro3a.com.
