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The Parson & the Songmen
The Reverend Sabine Baring Gould was an exceptional parson and squire from Devonshire, England.
He is probably best remembered as the composer of the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers'.
Born in Exeter in 1834, he died at his estate, Lewtrenchard Manor in West Devon, in 1924.
As 2024 is the centenary of his death it gives me the opportunity to spotlight what he considered to be the most important achievement of his life, that of collecting the old folk songs of Devonshire, and later Cornwall, as he termed it, 'from the mouths of the people'.
Join me as I tell stories about, and sing songs from, this far from ordinary Victorian country parson as he travelled by pony and trap across his native Devonshire seeking out songs that now form a major part of the English folk song tradition.
The Parson & the Songmen
S3 9 Harvest Home
The poet John Keats called Autumn the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'. A time for reflection and also a time when 'all is safely gathered in' before the onset of winter.
Those words, of course, come from the harvest hymn We Plough The Fields And Scatter, and in this episode of The Parson And The Songmen we discover the origins of what we know as The Harvest Festival church service and find out more about the man behind its creation - Robert Stephen Hawker, the Vicar of Morwenstow in North Cornwall. Hawker was known to The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould who saw something of himself in this larger than life, multi-talented, eccentric figure.
So, let's join Mike, in conversation with local historian and Hawker enthusiast, Matt Thomas, Outreach Officer at the Castle Heritage Centre, Bude.
Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk
Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk
Follow Mike on: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/
Mike's YouTube page for Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould songs:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos
Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group - 1924 to 2024: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/
Simon Mayor, ace mandolinist: mandolin.co.uk
Mike O'Connor, musicologist and musician: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/
Barbara Griggs, Cornish-based Harpist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857
Pete Coe, One Man Folk Industry: https://petecoe.co.uk/
Matt Thomas, local historian and Hawker Enthusiast - Outreach Officer, Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/