If I was a serious calendar custom researcher, and I doubt this bloke was, then I would say there is a definite need to document something like that, albeit highlighting the fact that it's a one off.

Don't forget, customs never run according to rigid authority. EG., I've been at Bacup during torrential downpours, when they were ferrying the nutters from pub to pub in cars. Then again, I remember one year, during smoking the fool at Haxey, when they built the fire a little too high. The fool hurriedly finished his speech and jumped off screeching "ME ARSE IS ON FIRE". Then again, during the second world war, when there was shortage of horses, they rode the Castleton Garland King and Queen round on tractors.

BTW., do you know who recorded Aubrey Cantwell singing The Soldier and the Lady? The version which was popularised by the Campbells, Dubliners etc., was recorded in 1956 by Peter Kennedy from Raymond and Frederick Cantwell. I've just looked in Steve Roud's Folksong Index and the only two entries I can find for Aubrey Cantwell are for a song called John Brdadbury.