Excerpt from George Pickingill by Andy Norfolk
Yule 08 / Imbolc 09 issue
One of the longest running threads on the Pagan Network forums has been about George Pickingill. It started with a few questions.
Did Pickingill start nine covens?
Was one of these the New Forest coven into which Gardner claimed he was initiated?
Was Pickingill a Satanist?
Are the 9 covens still in existence?
This has resulted in 36 pages of discussion at the time of writing and much of this has been quite detailed.
Later further questions were posed in an attempt to clarify the issues
Was Pickingill a Cunning Man?
Did he have links to any covens, orders or magical groups?
Did he pass on any teachings?
In the 1950s an author called Eric Maple researched witch traditions from the south-eastern quarter of Essex. Between 1960 and 1965 he published articles about this in the journal of the Folk-Lore Society. He mentioned George Pickingill, who was born in Hockley in Essex in 1816 and later lived in Canewdon and died in 1909. Pickingill was described as a farm labourer who charmed warts, cured other ailments and found lost property. He also ran a protection racket in which farmers paid him not to stop farm machinery and horses working. It was also said that he could fly through the air and could force local witches to come to their doors or dance for him in the churchyard. Maple, it seems, had spent some time talking to locals who could remember Pickingill, or who could at least remember stories about him. He was portrayed by Maple as a village magician, or what would now be called a cunning man. It is also clear from Maple's articles that his clients were all fairly local. However in 1962 Maple published a sensationalist book called "The Dark World of Witches". In this Maple exaggerated the reputation of his part of Essex as a centre of witchcraft and he reputation of George Pickingill. This book was unashamedly targeted at a popular market and it was after its publication that people began to take any notice of Pickingill. Despite the influence of this book subsequent authors have played down Pickingill's importance. For example, Owen Davies says that Pickingill who died in 1909 "was certainly one of the last practising cunning-folk in the country, but he was never a major regional figure".1
That answers one question; George Pickingill was a cunning man.
The chances are that Maple's articles and book would not have had much effect and that most people would have never have heard of Pickingill, or paid much attention to him. However a series of articles written by "Lugh" that first appeared from 1974 in the Wiccan magazine, and from 1977 in The Cauldron were to change that. "Lugh" is an Englishman, Bill Liddell, who emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1960s and subsequently moved to Australia. He claimed in the articles that he was a child of a witch family; an initiate into a hereditary Pagan witchcraft tradition and also an initiate into a separate witchcraft tradition influenced by George Pickingill. According to Bill, the elders of these two separate traditions wanted him to be their mouthpiece and pass on information about their ways and beliefs.
Over a period of many years Liddell wrote a series of quite extraordinary articles, which included a number of contradictions. At first his information was seized on eagerly by people such as Doreen Valiente as being a vindication of a wish to find proof of old roots for witchcraft, but as time went by more and more scepticism was expressed about his articles, even by those who were initially enthusiastic about them. These articles made a variety of claims about George Pickingill, which included that he was a hereditary witch and had passed teachings on to the Order of the Golden Dawn and that he knew Aleister Crowley and Allan Bennett. Liddell's articles said that the Pickingill family were hereditary priests of the Pagan Old Religion from the 11th century, but also that none of the traditions about which he wrote came from ancient sources but derived from a new religion which first emerged in 15th century France. He wrote that authentic hereditary covens were lead by a Magister and that sexual initiation was mandatory, but later that this had died out by the 18th century. Later still he wrote that in true hereditary traditions witches passed down knowledge within their families and never joined covens. Articles about George Pickingill described him as "England's most notorious witch", from a famous family of witches and that occultists of every sort came to consult him from all over not only England, but Europe and America. Liddell wrote that in Pickingill covens all the rites were conducted exclusively by women and that Pickingill founded nine covens over a period of 60 years. Further claims included that Pickingill introduced a "book of shadows" for each coven member, and that the rites were derived from a group founded by the magician Francis Barrett in 1816 and included many aspects of Wicca including ritual nudity, a dominant Goddess, the fivefold kiss, three degrees, drawing down the moon and the charge of the Goddess. Pickingill is said to have learnt more from the many cunning lodges of which he was a member and that they practised Satanism. A collection of the articles written by Bill Liddell was published by him, with commentary by Mike Howard (the editor of The Cauldron), in 1994 as "The Pickingill Papers".
Did Pickingill start nine covens?
Was one of these the New Forest coven into which Gardner claimed he was initiated?
Was Pickingill a Satanist?
Are the 9 covens still in existence?
This has resulted in 36 pages of discussion at the time of writing and much of this has been quite detailed.
Later further questions were posed in an attempt to clarify the issues
Was Pickingill a Cunning Man?
Did he have links to any covens, orders or magical groups?
Did he pass on any teachings?
In the 1950s an author called Eric Maple researched witch traditions from the south-eastern quarter of Essex. Between 1960 and 1965 he published articles about this in the journal of the Folk-Lore Society. He mentioned George Pickingill, who was born in Hockley in Essex in 1816 and later lived in Canewdon and died in 1909. Pickingill was described as a farm labourer who charmed warts, cured other ailments and found lost property. He also ran a protection racket in which farmers paid him not to stop farm machinery and horses working. It was also said that he could fly through the air and could force local witches to come to their doors or dance for him in the churchyard. Maple, it seems, had spent some time talking to locals who could remember Pickingill, or who could at least remember stories about him. He was portrayed by Maple as a village magician, or what would now be called a cunning man. It is also clear from Maple's articles that his clients were all fairly local. However in 1962 Maple published a sensationalist book called "The Dark World of Witches". In this Maple exaggerated the reputation of his part of Essex as a centre of witchcraft and he reputation of George Pickingill. This book was unashamedly targeted at a popular market and it was after its publication that people began to take any notice of Pickingill. Despite the influence of this book subsequent authors have played down Pickingill's importance. For example, Owen Davies says that Pickingill who died in 1909 "was certainly one of the last practising cunning-folk in the country, but he was never a major regional figure".1
That answers one question; George Pickingill was a cunning man.
The chances are that Maple's articles and book would not have had much effect and that most people would have never have heard of Pickingill, or paid much attention to him. However a series of articles written by "Lugh" that first appeared from 1974 in the Wiccan magazine, and from 1977 in The Cauldron were to change that. "Lugh" is an Englishman, Bill Liddell, who emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1960s and subsequently moved to Australia. He claimed in the articles that he was a child of a witch family; an initiate into a hereditary Pagan witchcraft tradition and also an initiate into a separate witchcraft tradition influenced by George Pickingill. According to Bill, the elders of these two separate traditions wanted him to be their mouthpiece and pass on information about their ways and beliefs.
Over a period of many years Liddell wrote a series of quite extraordinary articles, which included a number of contradictions. At first his information was seized on eagerly by people such as Doreen Valiente as being a vindication of a wish to find proof of old roots for witchcraft, but as time went by more and more scepticism was expressed about his articles, even by those who were initially enthusiastic about them. These articles made a variety of claims about George Pickingill, which included that he was a hereditary witch and had passed teachings on to the Order of the Golden Dawn and that he knew Aleister Crowley and Allan Bennett. Liddell's articles said that the Pickingill family were hereditary priests of the Pagan Old Religion from the 11th century, but also that none of the traditions about which he wrote came from ancient sources but derived from a new religion which first emerged in 15th century France. He wrote that authentic hereditary covens were lead by a Magister and that sexual initiation was mandatory, but later that this had died out by the 18th century. Later still he wrote that in true hereditary traditions witches passed down knowledge within their families and never joined covens. Articles about George Pickingill described him as "England's most notorious witch", from a famous family of witches and that occultists of every sort came to consult him from all over not only England, but Europe and America. Liddell wrote that in Pickingill covens all the rites were conducted exclusively by women and that Pickingill founded nine covens over a period of 60 years. Further claims included that Pickingill introduced a "book of shadows" for each coven member, and that the rites were derived from a group founded by the magician Francis Barrett in 1816 and included many aspects of Wicca including ritual nudity, a dominant Goddess, the fivefold kiss, three degrees, drawing down the moon and the charge of the Goddess. Pickingill is said to have learnt more from the many cunning lodges of which he was a member and that they practised Satanism. A collection of the articles written by Bill Liddell was published by him, with commentary by Mike Howard (the editor of The Cauldron), in 1994 as "The Pickingill Papers".