Our values
Integrity, Friendship, Respect and Service: the core values shared by every lodge under the United Grand Lodge of England.
What we stand forFriendship and community
Good company, the Festive Board, family events and charity work across Poole and Purbeck.
How we spend our timeSince 1921
Over a hundred years of brotherhood, meeting on Wednesday evenings at Branksome Masonic Hall, Parkstone.
Our storyOur core values
Integrity, Friendship, Respect and Service
Freemasonry helps each member become a better version of himself, and the lodge supports him in it.
Open to men of every outlook, Freemasonry gives common ground for friendships that last a lifetime.
Freemasons meet as equals, whatever their background, and treat one another with tolerance and courtesy.
Members give their time, money and skills to charity and to the communities they live in.
Freemasonry is one of the oldest fraternal organisations in the world. Men from every walk of life meet as equals, learn through ceremony and allegory, and give generously to charity, locally and nationally.
Purbeck Lodge meets at Branksome Masonic Hall in Parkstone, Poole. The ceremonies inside the Lodge are old and carefully kept. Afterwards, at the Festive Board, there is good company, good food and conversation that runs late.
You do not need to know anyone to begin. You only need to be curious, of good character, and willing to ask.
Brotherhood · Community · Charity
More than a meeting
Ask our members what they value most and the answer is usually the people. Purbeck Lodge is a group of friends of every age and background who look out for one another and give back to the place they live.
Every new member is looked after by an experienced brother. After each meeting we dine together at the Festive Board, and friendships form across generations: fathers, sons and grandsons have all been members.
Carols with the Salvation Army Band every December, skittles evenings with neighbouring lodges, ladies’ evenings and family events, and a friendship with our twinned lodge in Rouen that has lasted since 1980.
We raise money each year for Dorset causes, support the widows and families of our members, and take part in Provincial and national Masonic appeals.
Our story
A hundred years in sight of the Purbeck Hills
Purbeck Lodge was founded in 1921 by officers of the Tank Corps at Bovington, and we are proud of that connection. They named the Lodge after the hills they could see from camp, and in 1922 put Corfe Castle on its crest. Since 1934 we have met at Branksome, and the Lodge has grown into a home for men from every walk of life across Poole and Purbeck.
The crest on our summons first appeared in October 1922: a stylised Corfe Castle. Ask any member why the Lodge chose a ruin as its emblem. The answer is worth hearing in person.
Becoming a Freemason
To be one, ask one
Freemasons do not recruit by knocking on doors. The first step has always been yours. Men aged 18 and over are welcome to enquire.