Good grief, I hadn't realised that this argument has been going on here, amongst the same people, for over 10 years. Curious about the term 'broadside hack' I searched the forum for it.

I am not convinced about the rural-urban divide that seems to be taken for granted in this discussion. Roud quotes Charlotte Burne's reference to a Shrewbury broadside printer. The Bodleian index has broadsides from several printers in Shrewsbury (I have not checked the date ranges). I guess (someone correct me if I am wrong) that these were jobbing printers set up to do the routine printing of a rural county town as well as street literature.

Even now within 15 minutes walk from the centre of Shrewsbury you can get to meet a sheep or cow. Sure, the industrial revolution started just down the road in Ironbridge, but in the first half of the 19th century most of the industrial revolution was happening in the country. Even in the 1970's Oldham was advertising itself on the London tube as 'the town in the country'; in the 1960's there our milk was still delivered on a round run by the man who who milked the cows. In the early 19th century most urban workers would have had relatives in the country, many were probably born there, or even lived there and walked into the town to work.

I was slightly disappointed that Roud left a lot for the reader to form a view on rather than summarise his views. However, having accepted Amazon's suggestion of a sample of "The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs", I now see that its Introduction is just such a summary - the later book has the data.