liddell asserted that pickingill spent time in france, where he was initiated into a local form of the witch-cult. according to this account, upon his return to canewdon, pickingill was invited to lead a local coven which had been operating since the mid-fifteenth century—the "seven witches of canewdon"—and that he continued to lead the group until disbanding it several years prior to his death. liddell added that pickingill proceeded to introduce many new innovations into the english witch-cult by applying concepts borrowed from the danish and french witch-cults, namely the idea that the coven should be led by a woman. liddell asserted that pickingill then established nine covens in england, spread out in essex, norfolk, hertfordshire, sussex, and hampshire; he further added that two of those covens, based in hertfordshire and norfolk, survived into at least the 1970s. according to liddell, pickingill was propagating witchcraft in a reformed, female-oriented form because the oncoming age of aquarius would be more receptive to this form of spirituality.