Tradsinger wrote:-
His version of Lord Becket (17 and a half minutes, 3 fags and a double whisky) got longer every time you heard it.

Two Things:-
1](17 and a half minutes, 3 fags and a double whisky)
In my experience, it was nearly always a treble gin made up to a pint with tonic water.

2] He also sang me great versions of Henry Martin and the Jolly Butchers, exactly as collected from Henry Burstow 90 years previously, so presumably learnt by him from a printed source.
I never heard Gordon talk about this, but after he died I was interviewing Bob Lewis (partly for album notes, partly for a Musical Traditions interview which is on-line at http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/b_lewis.htm and Bob showed me a large book of photocopies of songs written out in Henry Burstow's handwriting which had been passed on to Bob after Gordon died. I don't think that Bob knew where Gordon got these photocopies from, but I was able to check the handwriting against a letter from Henry Burstow to Lucy Broadwood (which is in Shirley Collins' possession) to confirm that it was Henry's writing.
I think I remember reading somewhere (probably in Vic Gammon's unpublished thesis) that Lucy Broadwood got Henry Burstow to write songs out for her, so this may be the original source.

There's a photo I took of Bob holding this book along with the article on the MT site.

There is also a long interview with Gordon Hall dating from 1991 on the Musical Traditions website at http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/g_hall.htm