This Series features 12 caches about items of historic interest to Newton Abbot and the surrounding communities. Two caches will be published each month from June to November 2019 and a 13th event cache on December 11th will complete The Baker’s Dozen. Anyone attending the event cache on December 11th who brings proof that they have found all 12 Samuel Baker series caches will receive a certificate of achievement.
Sir Samuel White Baker, (8 June 1821 – 30 December 1893), was a Newton Abbot resident, a discoverer of Lake Albert and an explorer of the Nile and interior of central Africa. Together with his wife Florence, he retired to Sandford Orleigh in 1874 and he would describe the view looking down the Teign Estuary as one which reminded him of The Nile. Their house, built by industrialist George Templer in the 1830s, featured a chimney overmantel made up of several historic oak carvings. With the property now redeveloped into flats the Sandford Orleigh Screen, as the chimney piece is known, is now housed in Newton Abbot Museum
More information can be found by visiting the local museum