Gerald Brosseau Gardner, also known by the craft name Scire, was an English Wiccan, as well as an author and an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist. He was instrumental in bringing the Contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca to public attention, writing some of its definitive religious texts and founding the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca.
Christchurch is a town and civil parish in Dorset on the south coast of England. The town covers an area of 19.5 square miles (51 km2) and had a population of 48,368 in 2013. It adjoins Bournemouth to the west, with the New Forest to the east. Part of the historic county of Hampshire, Christchurch was a borough within the administrative county of Dorset from 1974 until 2019, when it became part of the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority.
Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, was an English aviation pioneer and aerospace engineer. The aircraft company he founded produced the Mosquito, which has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built, and his Comet was the first jet airliner to go into production.
The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies.
The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was a Rosicrucian group founded by George Alexander Sullivan in about 1924. It may have existed under the name The Order of Twelve from 1911–1914 and again from 1920. The ROCF operated first from the Liverpool area of England and then after the mid-1930s from the Christchurch area. Its members studied esoteric subjects from lectures, plays and correspondence material prepared by George Alexander Sullivan.
Castle Bromwich is a large suburban village situated within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of the West Midlands. It is bordered by the rest of the borough to the south east; also Sutton Coldfield to the east and north east, Shard End to the south west, Castle Vale, Erdington and Minworth to the north and Hodge Hill to the west – all areas of the City of Birmingham. It constitutes a civil parish, which had a population of 11,857 according to the 2001 census, falling to 11,217 at the 2011 census. The population has remained quite stable since then; the 2017 population estimate was 12,309.
George Alexander Sullivan (1890–1942) was the founder of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship.
Edith Rose Woodford-Grimes (1887–1975) was an English Wiccan who achieved recognition 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 go on to found the Gardnerian tradition with her help. Widely known under the nickname of Dafo, Woodford-Grimes' involvement in the Craft had largely been kept a secret until it was revealed in the late 1990s, and her role in the history of Wicca was subsequently investigated by historians.
Christchurch Priory is an ecclesiastical parish and former priory church in Christchurch in the English county of Dorset. It is one of the longest parish churches in the country and is as large as many of the Church of England Cathedrals.
The New Forest coven were an alleged group of witches who met around the area of the New Forest in southern England during the early 20th century. According to his own claims, in September 1939, a British occultist named Gerald Gardner was initiated into the coven and subsequently used its beliefs and practices as a basis from which he formed the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. Gardner described some of his experiences with the coven in his published books Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) although on the whole revealed little about it, saying he was respecting the privacy of its members. Meanwhile, another occultist, Louis Wilkinson, corroborated Gardner's claims by revealing in an interview with the writer Francis X. King that he too had encountered the coven and expanded on some of the information that Gardner had provided about them. According to Gardner, the faith which they followed was the continuation of the Witch-Cult, a pre-Christian religion that originated in the paganism of ancient Western Europe. This was in keeping with the widely held theories then propagated by the anthropologist Margaret Murray and her supporters.
Brewood is an ancient market town in the civil parish of Brewood and Coven, in the South Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. Located around grid reference SJ883088, Brewood lies near the River Penk, eight miles north of Wolverhampton city centre and eleven miles south of the county town of Stafford. A few miles to the west of Brewood is the border with the county of Shropshire.
Highcliffe-on-Sea is a small town in Dorset in southern England, administered since April 2019 as part of the unitary authority of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. It forms part of the South East Dorset conurbation along the English Channel coast. The town lies on a picturesque stretch of Solent coastline with views of the Isle of Wight and its 'Needles' rocks. It is part of the historic county of Hampshire.
Christchurch Airfield was located southeast of the A337/B3059 intersection in Somerford, Christchurch, Dorset, England.
Mudeford is a harbourside and beachside parish based on a former fishing village in the east of Christchurch, Dorset, England, fronting water on two sides: Christchurch Harbour and the sands of Avon Beach.
Raymond Howard was an English practitioner of the modern Pagan new religious movement of Wicca. He promoted his tradition, known as the Coven of Atho, through a correspondence course established in the early part of the 1960s.
Royal Air Force Weston-super-Mare or more simply RAF Weston-super-Mare is a former Royal Air Force station which was located on a civilian airfield in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England.
Royal Air Force Christchurch or more simply RAF Christchurch is a former Royal Air Force Advanced Landing Ground and was located southeast of the A337/B3059 junction in Somerford, Christchurch, Dorset, England.
Christchurch is a town and former borough in the county of Dorset on the English Channel coast, adjoining Bournemouth in the west, with the New Forest to the east. Historically in Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974 and is the most easterly borough in the county. Its close proximity to the Cotentin Peninsula made it an important trading port and a potential target for invasion during the Napoleonic and Second World Wars.
Christchurch is a town, civil parish and former borough in the county of Dorset on the English Channel coast, adjoining Bournemouth in the west, with the New Forest to the east. Historically in Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974 and is the most easterly borough in the county. The town has existed since 650 AD and its close proximity to the Cotentin Peninsula made it an important trading port and a potential target for invasion during the Napoleonic and Second World Wars.
