Sabine Baring-Gould was born in Exeter in 1834. During his childhood he travelled for 13 years through Europe and learnt 6 languages. At the age of 30 he took Holy Orders and served his curacy in the Yorkshire mill town of Horbury. It was here that he met Grace, with whom he was married for 48 years and had 15 children.
During his time in Yorkshire he wrote the hymns ‘Onwards Christian Soldiers’ and ‘Now the Day is Over’.
In 1881 he moved to his family home of Lew Trenchard as both Squire and Parson (Squarson). The property had been in his family since the 17th century. He did considerable restoration work on St Peter’s Church, Lew Trenchard and his home Lew Trenchard Manor.
He wrote prolifically and it is believed he had more than 200 works published.
Baring-Gould died shortly before his 90th birthday in 1924. He was buried in his own churchyard next to his wife.
In 1888 he set out to collect local folk songs from local people. Over 12 years he travelled throughout Devon and Cornwall, collecting directly from singer’s homes or inviting them to his home.
Baring-Gould was not a musician and would note the words while his colleagues ‘pricked down’ the tune. He enlisted the help of Dr Frederick Bussell and the Reverend H.W. Fleetwood Sheppard to capture the music.
He was unusual in trying to place the songs in their social and cultural context and taking a great interest in the people who sang for him. It is believed that his notebooks contained word pictures of the people he met and these provide a unique insight into the lives of the working men and women of Devon in the late 19th century.
Baring-Gould organised tours to perform the songs in theatre shows throughout the region.
All his work culminated in the publication ‘Songs of the West’ which was first published in 1889.
He placed a manuscript containing 202 of his collected songs in Plymouth Municipal Library in 1914.