Up here in the Glossop area I usually ask, when giving presentations at Women's Institutes or other organisations including some older people, whether they remember this rhyme from their youth. Quite a few still do, but only the chorus. Can't help on how the calling-on verses got associated with it, although I have a vague memory of coming across the "pepper pot" verse somewhere else.

After successfuly jogging a few memories at a local WI on the "Cob O Coalin'" front, on one occasion I pressed further and sang the first verse of the Pace Egg song ("Here's one, two, three jolly lads...."), asking whether anyone could remember that one. After a pause, a very elderly lady murmured from the back in a thick local accent, "Yes, I do." Very excited, I asked her where she recalled it from. "From a Watersons LP,", came the reply.