Bricket Wood coven

Many important and influential figures in Wicca were once members of the coven, including Dafo, Doreen Valiente, Jack Bracelin, Fred Lamond, Dayonis and Lois Bourne.

[2] Gardner founded the coven in the village of Bricket Wood around 1946 after moving to London from Highcliffe on the South Coast near the New Forest with his wife Donna.

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.

They held their meetings on the grounds of the local wooded Fiveacres nudist club, which Gardner had purchased a small plot at in 1945.

[citation needed] Doreen Valiente, whom Gardner had initiated into the craft at Midsummer 1953 at the home of Dafo in the New Forest, joined the coven, and rose to become High Priestess.

[7] 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.

[9]Gardner was left with a much younger coven, composed of Thelma Capel (Dayonis),[10][11] her then partner Jack Bracelin, Fred Lamond, a hospital anaesthetist, and a new initiate.

[14] Gardner also insisted on the initiation of Eleanor Bone, despite the fact that the coven members felt that they "simply couldn't circle with her" because of differences in exuberance.