Editing Wicca (section)

===Early development, 1936–1959===
It was during the 1930s that the first evidence appears for the practice of a neopagan 'Witchcraft' religion{{sfn|Heselton|2000}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Why Does Aleister Crowley Still Matter? |title=Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult |publisher=Disinformation Books |location=New York |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Metzger |first=Nevill |last=Drury |author-link=Nevill Drury |date=2003 |isbn=0-9713942-7-X |oclc=815051948}}</ref> (what would be recognisable now as Wicca) in England. It seems that several groups around the country, in such places as [[Norfolk]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Dancing With Witches |publisher=Robert Hale |location=London |first=Lois |last=Bourne |page=51 |date=1998 |isbn=0-7090-6223-0 |oclc=39117828}}</ref> [[Cheshire]]{{sfn|Heselton|2003}} and the [[New Forest]] had set themselves up after being inspired by Murray's writings about the "Witch-Cult".

The history of Wicca starts with [[Gerald Gardner]] (the "Father of Wicca") in the mid-20th century. Gardner was a retired British [[civil servant]] and amateur [[anthropologist]], with a broad familiarity in [[paganism]] and [[occultism]]. He claimed to have been [[initiation|initiated]] into a [[New Forest coven|witches' coven]] in [[New Forest District|New Forest]], [[Hampshire]], in the late 1930s. Intent on perpetuating this craft, Gardner founded the [[Bricket Wood coven]] with his wife Donna in the 1940s, after buying the [[Naturist]] Fiveacres Country Club.{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=289}} Much of the coven's early membership was drawn from the club's members{{sfn|Valiente|1989|p=60}} and its meetings were held within the club grounds.{{sfn|Lamond|2004|pp=30-31}}{{sfn|Valiente|1989|p=56}} Many notable figures of early Wicca were direct initiates of this coven, including [[Edith Woodford-Grimes|Dafo]], [[Doreen Valiente]], [[Jack L. Bracelin|Jack Bracelin]], [[Frederic Lamond (Wiccan)|Frederic Lamond]], [[Dayonis]], [[Eleanor Bone]], and [[Lois Bourne]].

The Witchcraft religion began to grow in 1951, with the repeal of the [[Witchcraft Act 1735]], after which [[Gerald Gardner]] and then others such as [[Charles Cardell]] and [[Cecil Williamson]] began publicising their own versions of the Craft. Gardner and others never used the term "Wicca" as a religious identifier, simply referring to the "witch cult", "witchcraft", and the "Old Religion". However, Gardner did refer to witches as "the Wica".{{sfn|Gardner|1954}} During the 1960s, the name of the religion normalised to "Wicca".{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=vii}} Gardner's tradition, later termed [[Gardnerian Wicca|Gardnerianism]], soon became the dominant form in [[England]] and spread to other parts of the [[British Isles]].