I went to school in Barnsley, Yorkshire - now South Yorkshire, and although we learned a few folk and folk type songs, did English county dancing and Scottish reels and - briefly - long morris - it was not presented to us as 'Heritage', it was simply something the authorities had decided we should do.

Don't knock Bessemer converters though - Sheffield's steel industry was a powerful force in the economy - Sammy Fox's steel works where my dad was employed made the molybdenum steel for the Americans - it was needed in the space rockets. It was very expensive.

When I left school I began to learn that the songs my family sang were something I should have paid attention to and not lost most of, that the few lines of silly dialogue my father's father quoted were from a play - in comes I little devil doubt, no matter how you try you cannot cast me out - in my hand a frying pan, on my head a rusty pail -

All too late.

Anne Croucher