The more I look into this question the more confusing it gets. Every now and again I find someone either on the net or off it who claims to be part of an ancient magical tradition which goes back hundreds if not thousands of years.
Occasionally it's a family trad or attributed to a group (witches normally) who come from a specific area or it may be a claim made by one or two individuals who then go on to start a trad.
Initially I rejected most of it as make believe. I know the history of witch trials in the UK and nothing that's mentioned bears any resemblance to BTW. But then I read Doreen Valiente's "The Search for Old Dorothy" as an appendix to the Farrar's A Witch's Bible Complete and it does seem to back up the idea that there was a tradition of some sort in the New Forest before Gardner.
So what documentary evidence do people know of for their trads?
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