Like. MacColl he borrowed from the tradtion for tunes,example Fiddlers Hill is When a man is in Love.
His songwriting tended to look backwards, not really surprising that he was so fond of Kipling, along with Michael Grosvenor Myer he seemed to dislike progressives on the folk scene or lefties as he called them. Kiplings poetry along with C Fox Smith, Lends itself well to musical arrangement, and Peter did a good job in composing and arranging the material.
He liked to sing and play bottleneck blues on guitar, But rarely performed these at his gigs.I think the Zenith of his singing career was with YT