Dorothy Clutterbuck - Clutterbuck and Wicca

Clutterbuck and Wicca

After her death in 1951, Clutterbuck was identified by Gerald Gardner as a leading member of the New Forest coven of witches into which he claimed to have been initiated in September 1939. Gardner referred to her affectionately as "Old Dorothy". Gardner's statements were interpreted by his pupil Doreen Valiente as implying that Clutterbuck had personally initiated him into the coven, but later authors such as Philip Heselton and Eleanor Bone claim that his initiator was in fact Edith Woodford-Grimes. Some writers, such as Jeffrey Russell, suggested that Clutterbuck had been invented by Gardner, but Valiente obtained her birth, marriage and death certificates and published a basic outline of her life in 1982.

It continues to be debated whether Gardner's claims that Clutterbuck was involved in pagan witchcraft were true, or whether Gardner used the name of a respectable local worthy as a private joke and in order to distract attention from his true magical partner, Edith Woodford-Grimes. Ronald Hutton and Leo Ruickbie have concluded that Clutterbuck is unlikely to have been involved in Gardner's activities, in particular because of her apparent commitment to Christianity. Hutton also points out that the date of Gardner's initiation would coincide with a period of mourning in 1939 when she had cancelled all other social engagements. Conversely, Philip Heselton has concluded that Clutterbuck definitely was involved in occult activities, and that her practice of Christianity was social and conventional in nature. The principal body of evidence to which both sides appeal is provided by Clutterbuck's own diaries.