In Ireland, in my experience, there has never been much interest in traditional English singers, but I was asked recently if I had heard of Johnny. Now in the late 70s, while living in Kent, I had many a good session with him- or a 'flanagan' (?) in Johnny's language, with many a pint of 'treacle' (Guinness). For those who don't know him, he was a Sussex fisherman, living near Rye, a real character with a store of old songs.
There is a lot of material on the British Library (sound) website- www.sounds.bl.uk - if you click on 'World & Traditional' and then search Johnny Doughty, you'll come to 74 tracks of chat & songs, under the 'Bob Davenport' collection. There are many of Johnny's songs, interviews by Bob, and a lot of pub music & songs featuring Johnny, Bob, myself & others, mainly recorded at the Smarden 'Bell'pub in Kent in June 1979.
It's a fascinating website in other ways too if you're interested in dialects for instance, but Johnny was always worth listening to!