Three centuries of Freemasonry was celebrated by Halesworth Freemasons with a quintet of charitable donations.

At a special presentation held at Halesworth Day Centre on Saturday, the Lodge of Prudence presented donations to five organisations, as it marked the tercentenary of the Freemasons.

Both worshipful master Ollie Fordham and charity steward Dorian Eady were on hand, along with three of their brothers, to show their support for five different organisations.

Halesworth Community Nursing Care Trust Fund, Halesworth Royal British Legion, Halesworth Day Centre, All Hallows Healthcare Trust and Halesworth Volunteer Centre were each presented with a requested item.

Mr Fordham said: 'We wanted each group to get something tangible, not simply a cash amount. We were keen to do something for the Halesworth community.'

The first presentation saw Dinah Morley, of the halesworth Community Nursing Care Trust Fund presented with a cheque for £200, as no specific item was requested.

A bespoke table cloth was then presented to Derek Draper, of the Halesworth branch of the Royal British Legion.

Next, the Halesworth Day Centre was presented with a hearing loop device, which was presented to Jean Macheath.

An airflow patient sling was then presented to Donna Oakins, of All Hallows Healthcare Trust, before, finally, the Halesworth Volunteer Centre received a laptop computer, collected by Emma Healey.

Mr Fordham added: 'For centuries, the charitable work of the Freemasons has been relatively understated, as we prefer to do it without publicising it too much. However, as it is the 300th anniversary we wanted to do something to celebrate the community and show our predecessors how proud we are of them.

'We reached out to each of these organisations and asked them if there was something specific they wanted, so that each item could become a symbol of the tercentennial and labelled as presented by Freemasons of Suffolk.

'It fills me and all of my lodge brothers with tremendous pride to be able to get involved in the local community and celebrate 300 years of Freemasonry.'