More than 50 guests were invited to the Slough Masonic Centre to learn about the links between Freemasons and the Sikh community.

The presentation at the centre in Ragstone Road was organised by the head of Slough and Bucks Freemason Gordon Robertson.

Gordon, who lives in Windsor, said the aim of the evening was to explain the “huge contribution” Freemason members make to the area to an audience who were primarily Sikh.

He added: “It was comforting to see how freemasonry’s goals of friendship, decency, and charity, cross all cultural and geographical boundaries.”

“It makes sense for people of similar values to meet together socially.”

Freemasonry is one of the world’s oldest friendship societies.

A Freemason lodge was started in Calcutta in 1730.

Every year 30 Freemason groups meet at the Masonic Centre in Slough and raising tens of thousands of pounds for good causes.