"Thing is, to hit those notes you have to be singing loud, and I can't think of any of the traditional English songs that I sing that would ever benefit from that kind of singing/that upper range."

It's all a matter of taste, Matt (though I don't know what kind of songs you sing). Belting it out works for Bellamy or Jon Boden, and Phil Tanner repeatedly nails a high E on his amazing recording of 'Henry Martin'.

Personally I'm very comfortable with D, pretty OK with E, can hit F,G or (on a good day) A without going falsetto, but F and above is the stuff of harmony parts rather than lead vocal. And, yes Larry, I'm talking about middle C + octave + interval.