Without wishing to open up the whole argument about what constitutes folk music or what constitutes English...;-)

If we look at the question "Earliest known English folk song" it has distinct parts. Firstly - Earliest known. I take that to mean earliest recorded. We can all assume that the cave men sang songs but there is no proof - so it is not 'known'. Known, I think, can only mean something that can be proved?

Secondly, English. As the English are very much a mongrel nation and can lay claim to many influences besides the Normans and Saxons already mentioned. I think we can only safely say 'In England' as this encompasses all the races that have gone to make up this country.

Finaly, folk song. What is a folk song? Huge question! I think we should exclude sacred and classical as being for the people but not of the people. Does that make sense? So, in a nutshell, folk music in this context being music as written and performed by the ordinary, everyday folk?

So the refined question may look more like 'Earliest recorded instance of music written and performed by people in England'. Bit long winded but am I on the right lines? If so perhaps you may agree that the Romans now must have a valid clain here!

Very quick research gave me this passage -

"Bishop Ambrose started a musical tradition of church songs written in Latin and based on Roman folk songs to appeal to the populace." So, we know that the Romans had folk songs. They were also resindent in England for 50 years before Christ and 400 years after. They also recorded things.

So, any of you historians out there that can come up with a Roman folk song that may well have been sung by the lads tramping along Hadrians wall may well be able to answer the question definitively!

Cheers

DtG