Well, Nerd, I can only repeat what Ashley told me about his early musical influences as I didn't - as you point out - meet him till 1969. OTOH, the writers of all the bios you've been reading could just have been making it up as they went along. Or just didn't ask the right questions...

True, Ashley might, after all, have been lying through his teeth when he spoke with vast knowledge and great affection about the English tradition which had interested him for some years. But it didn't sound like it. He was particularly annoyed at those who just assumed that Fairport's embracing of English traditional music was down to Swarb and Sandy.   And that love of the music has never left him. I don't pretend to like everything he has done because some of it didn't really work but I admire his tenacity and perseverence.