The Sheffield Wiccans whose story crossed paths with The Beatles

Sheffield has another unusual Beatles connection. In October 1964, Arnold Crowther, High Priest of the Sheffield Coven, claimed the Beatles’ phenomenal success was due to the occult:

“The Beatles got to the top by magic! When you have thousands of teenagers screaming and shouting it sends up magic. With this, they just cannot fail.”

Ringo Starr offered a rather more down-to-earth explanation:

“What fame we have we owe to a lot of luck. But one of the main factors is that Paul and John have been able to write songs that no-one has recorded before.”

Arnold founded the Sheffield Coven in 1961 with his wife Patricia Crowther, a Sheffielder who grew up above her family’s sweet shop on Duke Street, S2. Initiated into the Gardnerian tradition by Gerald Gardner, the couple became two of Britain’s best-known Wiccans, introducing modern Wicca to a wider public through books, broadcasting and public appearances. When Patricia died in 2025, tributes recognised her role in bringing the tradition out of relative obscurity.