 "Vinegar Tom" was written by British playwright Caryl Churchill in 1976.Churchill collaborated with the feminist theatre company 'Monstrous Regiment' during the writing process, while at the same time completing work on another play, "Light Shining in Buckinghamshire", with a different company, Joint Stock.Churchill and members from 'Monstrous Regiment' had met at a pro-choice protest march in the 1970s and quickly discovered that they were mutually interested in putting on a production about the social hardship of women in 17th century England and how marginalised women of this period, would often be branded as 'witches'.