Hi Anne,
I've seen Shonaleigh perform many times, both locally in Hull and at festivals where I've MCd concerts where she has performed. Mass migrations of refugees must have contributed greatly to the spread of material as well. Whitby Festival has always been very good at booking storytellers like Mike Rust, Stanley Robertson, Duncan Williamson, Taffy Thomas. Being an MC for a while meant that I got to see most of them perform.

My own perception of what levels of storytellers there were at other times and in other cultures is that it can't have been much different to what it is today, a whole range of different levels. Surely such wide-ranging and simple stories can't just have been the province of just a few specialists. But at the top of the tree were those who did specialise.