The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven was a coven

Coven

A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....

 of Gardnerian Witches

Gardnerian Wicca

Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...

 founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner

Gerald Gardner

Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...

. It was notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven

New Forest coven

The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan witches or Wiccans who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s...

. The coven formed after Gardner bought the Fiveacres Country Club, a Naturist club

Naturism

Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practising, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public. It may also refer to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism....

 in the village of Bricket Wood

Bricket Wood

Bricket Wood is a village in the county of Hertfordshire, England, approximately 4½ miles from St Albans. It is part of the parish of St Stephen. Its railway station is served by a London Midland service that runs between St Albans Abbey and Watford Junction stations.Close to the village stands...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, southern England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and met within the club's grounds. It played a significant part in the history of the neopagan religion of Wicca

Wicca

Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...

.

Many important and influential figures in Wicca were members of the coven, including Dafo

Dafo

Edith Rose Woodford-Grimes was an English Wiccan who achieved notoriety as one of the faith's earliest known adherents. She had been a member of the New Forest coven which met during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and through this became a friend and working partner of Gerald Gardner, who would...

, Doreen Valiente

Doreen Valiente

Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...

, Jack Bracelin, Frederic Lamond, Dayonis, Eleanor Bone

Eleanor Bone

Eleanor "Ray" Bone was an influential figure in the neopagan religion of Wicca. She claimed to have been initiated in 1941 by a couple of hereditary witches in Cumbria. She later met and became friends with Gerald Gardner, and was initiated into Wicca, becoming the High Priestess in one of his...

 and Lois Bourne

Lois Bourne

Lois Bourne is an influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, having been involved in it from the early 1960s, and has written a number of books on the subject...

. The coven is still active today, though it maintains secrecy and its history is only known up until the 1970s.

1940s

Gardner founded the coven around the year 1946 after moving to the area from the New Forest

New Forest

The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....

 with his wife Donna. In the New Forest, Gardner claimed to have been initiated into the New Forest coven

New Forest coven

The New Forest coven were a group of Neopagan witches or Wiccans who allegedly met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the 1930s and 1940s...

, where he learned the mysteries and practices of the witchcraft religion. Gardner, fearing that the "Old Religion" as he called it would die out, decided to form a new coven near to his new home, where he could initiate more people into the craft and keep it alive.

Gardner acted as the coven's High Priest, with Dafo

Dafo

Edith Rose Woodford-Grimes was an English Wiccan who achieved notoriety as one of the faith's earliest known adherents. She had been a member of the New Forest coven which met during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and through this became a friend and working partner of Gerald Gardner, who would...

 acting as High Priestess. She had also been a member of the New Forest coven. Dafo remained a member of the coven until she left it by late 1952, annoyed at Gardner's publicity seeking.

Gardner gained several members to the coven, all of whom were either members of the Fiveacres naturist club or were already witches, although Donna, Gardner's wife, never got involved, having no interest in witchcraft. They held their meetings on the grounds of the local wooded Fiveacres nudist club, which Gardner had purchased in 1945. He was himself not interested in running the club, and as such appointed an administrator to take on the job.

Gardner re-assembled what he called the "witches' cottage" on a plot of land which he owned in the club grounds. The small cottage was decorated with magical sigils on the inside. He had purchased this building from a friend of his, the Freemason J.S.M Ward, who was a pioneer of the restoration of historical buildings. It was within this cottage that the coven assembled to perform their rituals.

Doreen Valiente, 1953-1957

Doreen Valiente

Doreen Valiente

Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente , who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho...

, who Gardner had initiated into the craft at Midsummer 1953 at the home of Dafo

Dafo

Edith Rose Woodford-Grimes was an English Wiccan who achieved notoriety as one of the faith's earliest known adherents. She had been a member of the New Forest coven which met during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and through this became a friend and working partner of Gerald Gardner, who would...

 in the New Forest

New Forest

The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....

, joined the coven, and rose to become High Priestess.

In 1956, Jack Bracelin was initiated into the coven by Valiente. Bracelin became a favourite of Gardner's, and he gave Bracelin the job of running the Fiveacres club after sacking the previous administrator, who "had deliberately run the club at a loss by setting unrealistically high requirements for membership, hoping thereby to persuade Gerald to eventually sell him the club at a low price". The sacked administrator had felt scorned, and convinced the president of the Central Council of British Naturism, Ernest Stanley, that the club was a cover for witchcraft, and that they should not be allowed membership to the CCOBN. Hoping to help Jack and Gardner's club out, the coven performed a ritual, and the situation was resolved.

In the mid 1950s, Gardner began to encourage more publicity, something which annoyed many coven members. In 1957, Valiente and several other coven members confronted Gardner over this, claiming that they should have a set of rules to regulate such a thing. Gardner, in response, brought about the Wiccan laws

Wiccan Laws

The Wiccan Laws, also called the Craft Laws, the Old Laws, the Ardanes or simply The Laws are the traditional laws of Wicca from the Book of Shadows...

, which offended Valiente, and in 1957 her and many of the group's older members left to form their own coven.

The split-off coven asked if they could continue to use the witches' cottage for their rituals, but in a letter Gardner replied that:
Gardner was left with a much younger coven, composed of Dayonis, her then sexual partner Jack Bracelin, Fred Lamond

Fred Lamond

Frederic Lamond is a prominent English Wiccan who was an early member of the Gardnerian tradition, having been initiated into it in 1957, when he joined the Bricket Wood coven...

, a hospital anaethetist, and a new initiate.

Dayonis, 1958-1959

With Valiente gone, Dayonis took over as the High Priestess of the coven, in January 1958. With Dayonis in charge, Gardner asked her to immediately initiate anyone who asked into the craft, in contrast with his former belief that prospective candidates should wait for a year and a day before initiation. One such of these new fast-tracked initiates was Fred Lamond

Fred Lamond

Frederic Lamond is a prominent English Wiccan who was an early member of the Gardnerian tradition, having been initiated into it in 1957, when he joined the Bricket Wood coven...

, who was initiated only four months after meeting the coven for the first time. Gardner also insisted on the initiation of Eleanor Bone

Eleanor Bone

Eleanor "Ray" Bone was an influential figure in the neopagan religion of Wicca. She claimed to have been initiated in 1941 by a couple of hereditary witches in Cumbria. She later met and became friends with Gerald Gardner, and was initiated into Wicca, becoming the High Priestess in one of his...

, despite the fact that the coven members felt that they "simply couldn't circle with her" because of differences in exuberance. Within a month, Gardner had brought about her 2nd and 3rd initiations, and set her up as the High Priestess of a new coven, independent of the Bricket Wood one.

In spring 1958, whilst Gardner was away from the coven, staying at his museum on the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, the other members decided that did not want to continue using only binding and scourging to raise energies, and so they tried to do so by the circle dance method, which most found to be more effective than Gardner's preferred methods. At the same time, the group decided that they wanted to celebrate the solstices and the equinoxes as well as the cross-quarter days (the coven at the time called them Halloween

Halloween

Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

, Candlemass

Candlemass

Candlemass are an influential Swedish doom metal band established in 1984 by Leif Edling , their leader and songwriter. The band is originally from Stockholm. After releasing five full-length albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Candlemass disbanded in 1994, but...

, Beltane

Beltane

Beltane or Beltaine is the anglicised spelling of Old Irish  Beltaine or Beltine , the Gaelic name for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.Bealtaine was historically a Gaelic festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.Bealtaine...

 and Lammas

Lammas

In some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere, August 1 is Lammas Day , the festival of the wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop...

). Gardner gave his written permission for this, and it was adopted by other practitioners of the craft, such as Doreen Valiente. This was the beginning of the belief in the Wiccan Wheel of the Year

Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of the Year is a Neopagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to as Sabbats...

.

In October 1959, Dayonis moved to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and Lois Bourne

Lois Bourne

Lois Bourne is an influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, having been involved in it from the early 1960s, and has written a number of books on the subject...

 became the coven's High Priestess.

1960s

After Gardner's death in 1964, Jack Bracelin, who had remained loyal to Gardner throughout, took over the group as High Priest. At the same time he inherited the Fiveacres club from Gardner. However he soon left the coven, and abandoned the craft, because, according to coven member Frederic Lamond, "he asked himself whether the Book of Shadows

Book of Shadows

A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious texts and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Originating within the Gardnerian tradition of the Craft, the first Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s...

' simplified ceremonial magic rituals expressed his own religious feelings, and concluded they did not".

The coven continued to assemble at the Witches' cottage, which Bracelin allowed them to use as long as they paid rent on it. Many coven members were not happy with this, as they were not members of the nudist club, though they did so anyway.

1970s

In 1972, the group stopped using the Witches' cottage all year round, and instead started meeting at the north London home of the High Priest and High Priestess during winter.

In 1975, Bracelin tried to get the group to pay for the nudist club's electricity as well as paying rent, which the coven members were unwilling to do, and so they sold their plot to another club member.