Going back to the beginning of this interesting thread i noticed the reference to this song being sung to tune "The star of the county down" and not followed up. The history of that connection lies in a play Miles Malleson(more famous as a comic actor) wrote about the Tolpuddle martyrs. Called, possibly "Six men of Dorset"( I'm speaking from 40 year old memory, that may be wrong). Anyway in the play Malleson used the song, and in the TV production i remember watching as a lad it was sung to the hymn tune Kingsfold (I heard the voice of Jesus say): which is a traditional tune and as near as damn it the same tune as "The star of the county down". so there is one connection of those words and that tune. Doubtless someone will quickly post the date of the play and the correct title if ie misremembered it. To add my own bit, I did the music for a show about the Chartists called "1842" in Stoke a while back, and used that tune for the song. I've never heard the Carthy version, I must lookfor it.