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03 June 2020

Sabine Baring-Gould: dedication of a blue plaque, March 2020




Dedication of a blue plaque to

Sabine Baring-Gould

by 
   
at Chichester Place, Southernhay, Exeter

20 March 2020

Programme and details of participants





Programme of events

1.45   Start to assemble outside Gilbert Stephens, 16 Southernhay West.
          Please keep a good distance from each other.
2.00   Welcome by Exeter Civic Society.
Unveiling of blue plaque to Sabine Baring-Gould.
Announcement of grants by Kent Kingdon Bequest.
2.15   Close of event.

Exhibition of books, broadside ballads and manuscripts.
Recital of folk songs by Wren Music.
Southernhay Church Hall. 
Cancelled because of Covid-19 lock-down.

It is hoped to hold an event celebrating Sabine Baring-Gould and his contribution to folk song and popular culture at a later date.

 
Two of Sabine Baring-Gould's song men

Programme compiled by Ian Maxted for



Sabine Baring-Gould 1834-1924

Some key dates from a long and full life.
1834 28 Jan. Born in Chichester Place, Exeter.
1852 Admitted to Cambridge University BA 1857.
1857 Teacher at Hurstpierpoint College.
1862 Travelled round Iceland on horseback
1864 Ordained, curate at Horbury, Yorkshire.
1868 Married Grace Taylor, daughter of a mill-hand.
1869-1891 15 children born to Grace and Sabine.
1871 Rector of East Mersea, Essex.
1872 Inherited Lewtrenchard estate in Devon.
1881 Appointed himself to the living of Lewtrenchard.
1888 Started to collect folk songs, published 1889-1891.
1893 Started excavation of hut-circles on Dartmoor.
1916 Grace died, buried in Lewtrenchard churchyard.
1924 2 Jan. Died at Lewtrenchard, buried with Grace.



Details of participants

The Society is proud to be erecting a blue plaque to celebrate this notable person who was born in Exeter and has made a significant contribution to English society
The Civic Society’s blue plaques scheme is dedicated to putting up new plaques and creating interest in all the plaques and other monuments that mark links between historic people and the city. Discovering commemorative plaques to famous Exonians and other notable figures connected with the city is a great way to explore Exeter’s heritage. To discover a building has associations with a famous historical figure connects past and present in a very direct way, and often in surprising ways. It adds to knowledge of our heritage and pride in our surroundings.
Celebrating the history of Exeter is just one of our many objectives. The society was established in 1961 to challenge developments that threatened the city’s historic buildings. Our aims are to promote high standards of planning and architecture; to educate the public in the geography, history, natural history and architecture of Exeter; and to secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic or public interest in Exeter. We challenge City and County councils to ensure development is appropriate for our historic city, as well as scrutinising development plans and commenting on them. We welcome all those who share our aims to join us. More information can be found on our website:

Gilbert Stephens
Gilbert Stephens, on whose premises the Sabine Baring-Gould blue plaque is placed, is a leading firm of Exeter solicitors.
They take their responsibility to supporting and contributing to the community seriously, participating in local fundraising events to support local branches of FORCE Cancer Charity, McMillan Cancer Charity, Exeter YMCA and WESC Foundation as well as local art shows, brass bands, choral societies, sporting events and many other activities.

Leander Architectural
Leander Architectural and The Royal Label Factory who made the blue plaque are long established businesses producing high quality signage and structures. The RLF dates back to 1874 and Leander to 1986, with the two businesses merging in 1998. Some of their customers have worked with them for more than 50 years and they have made signs for the National Trust for 80 years. They have been making blue plaques for Exeter Civic Society for several years.
Over time many aspects of their work have changed with the advent of computer graphics, laser cutting and etching, but old crafts such as sand-casting are still used. They have been making high quality cast plaques in iron, bronze, aluminium and brass for over 140 years. All the high-silicon aluminium used in their blue plaques is 100% recycled metal, reducing the environmental impact of their castings. The mould for the Baring-Gould plaque is displayed as well as a series of images illustrating the production of an earlier Civic Society plaque.

Wren Music
Wren Music, who were scheduled to perform after the unveiling, is a community arts organisation based in Okehampton who have been working with people across Devon since 1983 celebrating cultural identities through traditional music. The work of Sabine Baring-Gould has long inspired their work and they have for many years run workshops, festivals and other events linked to him.
Following the rediscovery by Wren of important folk song manuscripts of Sabine Baring-Gould at Killerton in 1992 they set up the Baring-Gould Heritage Project which microfilmed all his known folk song manuscripts in 1998. Most of these items were later digitised, again through Wren, for the Devon Traditions project in 2009/11 and images and indexes of folk songs were made available on the English Folk Dance and Song Society's website:

Sabine Baring-Gould Folk Song Archive
The archive was gathered together by the Wren Trust through the Baring-Gould Heritage Project which microfilmed all the items then identified in 1998. Most items were digitised, again by Wren, for the Devon Traditions project in 2009/11 and images and indexes of folk songs were made available on the English Folk Dance and Song Society's website. The Sabine Baring-Gould folk song archive is made up as follows:

SBG1 Devon Heritage Centre (formerly at Killerton)
SBG1/1-3   Personal copy manuscript. 3 volumes (compiled ca. 1889-1893).
SBG1/4-7   Songs and ballads of the West. 4 parts. Interleaved & annotated.
SBG1/8       Garland of country song. Interleaved and annotated copy.

SBG2         Devon Heritage Centre (notebooks formerly at Killerton)
SBG2/1-3   Working notebooks 2-4 (formerly Killerton notebooks 1-3).
SBG2/4       Emily Baring-Gould's manuscript song book.

SBG3 Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
SBG3/1       Fair copy manuscript (compiled 1892).
SBG3/2       Working notebook 1 (formerly Plymouth notebook 1).
SBG3/3       Composition notebook (formerly Plymouth notebook 2).
SBG3/4-16 Rough copy notebooks volumes 1-11, 13-14.

SBG4         Popular literature (Devon Heritage Centre, printed)
SBG4/1/1-3          Chapbooks (3 volumes).
SBG4/2/1-7          Ballads (7 volumes).
SBG4/3       Broadsides (1 volume).

SBG5 Harvard
SBG5          Ballads and songs collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould,
chiefly in Devonshire, and sent by him to Prof. F.J. Child.


Patten Archive available through the National Sound Archive
The National Sound Archive, a department within the British Library, includes some 6,500 field recordings of traditional songs, music, storytelling and customs made between 1969 to 2001 mainly in the south west of England, in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall by Bob and Jacqueline Patten.
The Patten Archive includes original performances of West Gallery Music, Shape Note Singing, and carols as well as recordings of traditions such as wassailing, children's rhymes, songs and games and interviews about rural life. The Archive also comprises music manuscripts of the 19th century, slides, photographs, video recordings and research notes. In future years the Archive will be housed in the Taunton office of the South West Heritage Trust.
The archive continued to grow after 2001 and is a worthy continuation of the pioneering work of Sabine Baring-Gould. Like his collections, the Patten collection can be enjoyed by everyone.

Lewtrenchard Manor
Lewtrenchard Manor was built in the 1620s but was altered considerably by Sabine Baring-Gould who resided there for many years. In 1872 he inherited the family estates of Lewrenchard, which comprised 3,000 acres, and the gift of the living of Lewtrenchard parish. When the living became vacant in 1881 he was able to appoint himself as parson and he lived there until his death in 1924.
The house contains a significant part of the Baring-Gould library and also the Shacklock Collection of books relating to Sabine Baring-Gould. It is now a hotel and can be visited to enjoy the house, the church of Saint Peter, where Sabine and his wife Grace are buried, as well as the beautiful grounds and the recently rediscovered  Forgotten Garden. The hotel also provides tea, coffee and meals.

Devon Heritage Centre part of South West Heritage Trust
The Devon Heritage Centre holds all types of historical archives relating to the county of Devon and the City of Exeter. Devon Record Office moved from the Centre of Exeter to Great Moor House in 2005 and the Westcountry Studies Library was relocated there in 2012. Since 2014 the joint service has been run by the South West Heritage Trust under the name of the Devon Archives and Local Studies Service.
The Westcountry Studies Library contains many volumes by or about Sabine Baring-Gould and the Record Office hold (on loan from the Baring-Gould Corporation) the greater part of the Baring-Gould manuscript collection, much of which was formerly housed in Killerton. 

Plymouth Museum Archives and Local Studies Service
Plymouth operates a separate record office and local studies service and also holds significant collections of material relating to Sabine Baring-Gould including the Francis Nicolle Collection and Baring-Gould's fair copy folk song manuscript.

Friends of Devon's Archives
The Friends of Devon's Archives was founded in 1998 to promote the preservation and use of historical records throughout Devon and to raise public awareness of their importance for research and education. It provides financial support for the acquisition of Devon documents, arranges a programme of lectures and volunteer projects, and liaises closely with the local record offices in Devon to improve standards of care and availability of the county's written heritage. Its newsletter includes details of current projects and lists of recent acquisitions by archives in the county of Devon and city of Plymouth.


Kent Kingdon Bequest
The Kent Kingdon Bequest exists to purchase books for the Exeter Public Library and works of art for the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. It was established under the will of Kent Kingdon, an Exeter cabinet maker who died on 2 April 1889. In the early part of the twentieth century the funds facilitated the purchase of many items but over the years they were eroded by inflation. From the 1970s the fund became dormant but in 1994 the Bequest was revived and the income which had accrued over the previous twenty years was reinvested and a number of grants were made to the Museum and Library. The charity is still active, in 2020 making significant grants to Wren Music to complete the Devon traditions digitisation project and to the Westcountry Studies Library for retrospective purchases to fill gaps caused by the years of austerity.

University of Exeter Library Special Collections
The Special Collections department manages the University's collections of unique and rare materials, which include archives, manuscripts, and rare books. Material in their collections is available for everyone - students, staff and external researchers – to access in the Ronald Duncan reading room. The collections cover a wide range of subjects, including Arab and Islamic Studies; Art History and Visual Culture; Business Studies; Drama; English; Geography; History; Literary Studies; Local Studies; Modern Languages; Politics; and Theology and Religion.
It also includes a major part of the Baring-Gould library, which was transferred from Killerton in 2012. The contents have recently been recatalogued by qualified volunteer staff and sets of volumes long broken between the University, Devon Heritage Centre and Lewtrenchard Manor reunited. The web address below homes in on the 1,800 records in the Baring-Gould collection.

Devon and Exeter Institution
The Institution was established in 1813 at its present home in 7 Cathedral Close. Established "… for promoting the general diffusion of Science, Literature and the Arts, and for illustrating the Natural and Civil History of the county of Devon and the History of the City of Exeter", it became an educational charity in 1989. It maintains a library of 35,000 volumes and many thousands of maps, prints, pamphlets, cuttings and leaflets.  The library is deemed of national importance as an intact collection in its original setting. Its collections include many items by or relating to Sabine Baring-Gould.

Devon bibliography
Established in its present form in 2015 to complete Devon's publishing record, which had been disrupted by austerity measures affecting the library service, the Devon bibliography picks up on the annual publications produced from 1985 to 2005 by the Westcountry Studies Library. Based on the old catalogue of the Westcountry Studies Library, it is supplemented by the British national bibliography, JISC discovery hub, WorldCat etc. It now contains some 100,000 records: 55,000 books, 500 newspapers, 1,800 periodicals, 8,500 articles, 500 theses, 3,500 non-archival manuscripts, 17,000 maps and 4,000 illustrations (mainly published prints) held in collections across Devon and beyond. It is currently the work of one individual and cannot be maintained indefinitely. Perhaps the UNESCO city of literature initiative will find it an institutional home back in a library where it belongs.
It includes a full listing of works in Baring-Gould's Library split between the University of Exeter, the Devon Heritage Centre and Lewtrenchard Manor, and also locations in Plymouth and the Shacklock Collection at Lewtrenchard. There are also listings of several thousand broadside ballads, most of them given by Sabine Baring-Gould to the British Library.


Sabine Baring-Gould Appreciation Society
The Society was established by David Shacklock in 1989. The purpose of the Society was to enable those interested in Sabine Baring-Gould and his work to share their enthusiasm and to spread that enthusiasm among others.
Two publications were produced by SBGAS: the Newsletter was issued in February, June and October each year and Transactions, produced annually from 2001 to 2018. Archived copies can be read on the website. The Society also organised an annual meeting in lcations linked to Sabine Baring-Gould both inside and outside Devon. The Society was wound up in 2019. Its website is being maintained in the medium term and contains much valuable material. A relationship with former members is being maintained and Martin Graebe remains a point of contact for those who wish to know more about Baring-Gould and his work.
www.sbgas.org [problems in accessing site June 2020]
Mint Press
Mint Press has recently published a book on Uncle Tom Cobley and all, as well as many other works on Devon and its heritage.
Mint Press was established in 2000 by Todd Gray and by 2020 has published some fifty titles relating to Devon, mainly written by Todd himself.
He studied for a doctorate at the University of Exeter from 1984 to 1988. He has been involved with many local organisations including Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, the Devonshire Association, Devon History Society, the Devon and Cornwall Record Society, Devon Gardens Trust, Devon Family History Society, the Centre for South-Western Historical Studies at the University of Exeter and the Friends of Devon's Archives. He has discovered many hidden gems in archives and libraries across Britain, has spoken widely on Devon's history and campaigned for Devon's heritage, recently for the Royal Clarence Hotel after the devastating fire.


Roger Bristow
Dr Roger Bristow is a geologist who worked for the British Geological Survey. This has made him an expert in assessing Sabine Baring-Gould's interest in geology and he has contributed on this to the Transactions of the Sabine Baring-Gould Appreciation Society, for which body he served for some time as editor.
His main contribution to the heritage of Sabine Baring-Gould is A bibliography of the works of Sabine Baring-Gould, a mammoth task. The introduction reveals quite what a prolific writer Sabine Baring-Gould was. Between 1852 and 1924 he wrote at least 1153 works in all. In addition to books and pamphlets this total included articles published in 235 magazines, journals and newspapers throughout the world.

Martin Graebe
Martin researches, writes, and gives talks about traditional song. An important part of this work has been his study of Sabine Baring-Gould’s pioneering project to document the songs of the ordinary people of Devon and Cornwall. The outcome of this work is his recent, award winning book As I walked out, Sabine Baring-Gould and the Search for the Folk Songs of Devon and Cornwall.
Martin contributed many articles to the publications of the Sabine Baring-Gould Appreciation Society (SBGAS), of which he was the chairman and Transactions Editor until 2019. He was also the editor of the SBGAS website (www.sbgas.org), which continues to be maintained as a source of information for those with an interest in Sabine Baring-Gould. He edits an occasional newsletter Onward! for former members of the Society.
Martin and his wife, Shan, perform traditional songs, many from the Baring-Gould collection. They also maintain two other websites, one on the folk songs collected by Sabine Baring-Gould and the other on their own musical activities

David Shacklock
David Shacklock is an enthusiast for Sabine Baring Gould who was the prime mover in setting up the Sabine Baring-Gould Appreciation Society in 1989. For many years he collected works by Sabine Baring-Gould, both separately published and issued as articles in complete volumes of magazines. He also collected works which contained references to Baring-Gould and places where he lived. This collection of more than 1,000 items was donated to the Baring Gould Heritage Trust at Lewtrenchard Manor in 2018 and is listed in the Devon Bibliography.

Norman Wallwork
Rev Prebendary Norman Wallwork is an authority on Baring Gould’s writings, particularly his hymns. The more than eighty hymns and carols he has identified are listed with texts and historical details in his booklet Most highly favoured lady, the translations and hymns of Sabine Baring-Gould : an annotated anthology,  a first draft of which appeared in 2013. The 2014 issue of the Transactions of the Sabine Baring-Gould Appreciation Society includes an article by Norman Wallwork on Sabine Baring-Gould's hymns.

Ron Wawman
Ron Wawman is a retired psychiatrist cum local historian and playwright whose biographical community play about Baring-Gould Like a buoy that in 2007 was produced in West Devon by Red Spider Company. Never completely submerged, looks at Sabine’s life through the diary written by Sabine, transcribed by Ron Wawman and was published in 2009. His website also features much other little known and unpublished material written by Sabine. Between them they shine light into corners of this important 19th century polymath's life, that are not illuminated by either his own Reminiscences or by the biographies that have been written about him. He formed the Friends of the Forgotten Garden of Lew Trenchard which can now be enjoyed by visitors to Sabine Baring-Gould's home.


Exeter City Council. UNESCO city of literature
This display is promoted as an example of the type of event that the UNESCO city of literature will encourage, linking individuals and groups to celebrate Exeter and Devon's thousand year literary heritage. It is hoped any future event celebrating Sabine Baring-Gould and rededicating the plaque could form part of the four year programme due to be launched at the Exeter Festival in July.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Widecombe Fair

From the personal copy manuscript held by the Devon Heritage Centre
English Folk Dance and Song Society website
with permission from the Baring-Gould Heritage Trust

The wandering bard from Exeter
Broadside ballad from Sabine Baring-Gould's collection
Now in the British Library: L.R.271.a.2, Vol.6, fo.206


 Long song seller


from Henry Mayhew's London labour and the London poor (1851)

This page last updated 3 June 2020