Wicca is a neo - pagan religion based on the pre - Christian traditions of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  In 1951, the laws against Witchcraft were repelled in Britain, and a man named Gerald Gardner was the first to come into the public eye with a description of what modern Witches were practising.  His information came from the traditions of a coven called the New Forest Witches, and from his past dealings with ceremonial magick and the Cabbalah.  He began what is now called the Gardnerian Tradition of Wicca.  From Gardnerian came the Alexandrian Tradition, and a host of other off shoots that today number in their hundreds.  Gerald Gardner can therefore be seen as the founder of modern day Wicca.