Piel Castle Lodge No 6099 was founded in 1945 and has met at Barrow Masonic Hall ever since. The lodge’s namesake, Piel Castle, is one of many ancient monuments in the Furness area connected to the monks of Furness Abbey.
Built in the early 14th century by John Cockerham, the Abbot of Furness Abbey, it was intended to oversee the trade through the local harbour and to protect against Scottish raids. The castle was built using stones from the local beach with imported sandstone and featured a large keep with surrounding inner and outer baileys.
Ted Hawksworth, a retired police officer and expert model maker (known on the search engine Google as Skipper Ted), was originally a member of Newby Bridge Lodge No 4598 with another police colleague who passed to the Grand Lodge above some years ago. Sadly, work and other pressures meant that Ted had to resign from Newby Bridge Lodge about 18 years ago.
Since retirement, Ted had decided that he would like to re-join a lodge closer to his home in Barrow, so two long-time friends, Dennis Laird and Tony Jackson proposed and seconded Ted to become a member of Piel Castle Lodge. After a successful ballot, Ted joined in January 2026.
Shortly afterwards, he made it known that his son, Luke Hawksworth, was interested in joining Piel Castle Lodge along with his father. Following an interview and successful ballot, he was initiated into the lodge in fine style at the March regular lodge meeting by immediate past master David Cottam.
The working tools of an entered apprentice Freemason were presented to Luke by his father and proposer, Ted Hawksworth. The charge after initiation was delivered by Scott Deakin of Hartington Lodge No 1021. After that, the mode of preparation was delivered to Luke by his seconder and lodge director of ceremonies, Dennis Laird. Luke is an enthusiastic young man and is keen to progress through Freemasonry and the lodge looks forward to that progression with the greatest of delight.
