Sabine Baring-Gould became curate to the Rev. John Sharp, vicar of Horbury, but was based at Horbury Bridge from 1864 to 1867.

While acting as curate he met Grace Taylor, a mill girl aged fourteen, the daughter of a mill hand. His vicar, John Sharp, arranged for Grace to live for two years with relatives in York to learn middle-class manners. Baring Gould and Grace were married at St. Peter's Church, Horbury on Sunday on May 24th, 1868. Their marriage lasted until her death 48 years later, and the couple had fifteen children. My Auntie Cissy always said that we were related to Baring Gould, just as many other Devon families must be!

About 1865 he was teaching carols to a party of mill-girls in the West Riding; 'and amongst them that by Dr. Gauntlett - "Saint Joseph was a walking" - when they burst out with "Nay! We know one a great deal better nor yond!"; and, lifting up their voices, they sang' (as Georgina Boyes told me in Ossett). Baring Gould wrote Onward Christian Soldiers while at Horbury Bridge, and was amazed at its popularity. He said he had dashed the words off in no more than ten minutes as an occasional piece for a procession of school children.