The fascinating story of a Victorian gentleman who walked the length and breadth of Dartmoor collecting earthy folk songs from country people will be explored in a talk in Okehampton on Saturday.

Writer Martin Graebe will discuss his new book about Sabine Baring-Gould in the Ebenezer Hall in Okehampton at 12.15pm. The event is part of the Baring-Gould Folk Weekend organised by Okehampton’s Wren Music.

Martin, who now lives in Gloucestershire, lived for a long time in Okehampton and is one of the founders of the folk weekend.

He met his wife Shan at the festival back in 2000, and the couple sing traditional harmonies together.

It was singing traditional English songs which first got Martin interested in the subject of Sabine Baring-Gould, the clergyman who lived at Lew Trenchard in west Devon and is best remembered for composing the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers. Martin has undertaken extensive research on Baring-Gould over many years, and this book is the result.

A lot of his work was done on Dartmoor,’ he said. ’He walked practically every corner of the moor where people actually lived to see what songs people were singing there. Later he turned his attention to archeology on Dartmoor. He regarded his folk song collection to be the most important achievement of his life.

’Not everyone would agree because he did so many other things. His archeology was highly regarded and he was one of the most highly regarded novelists or his time. He was very well-known to a late Victorian audience.’Martin will be available to sign copies of his book, As I Walked Out (Signal Books, £16.99) after his talk.