For what it's worth, The Liverpool Lodger is written in traditional ballad metre, alternating four-beat and three-beat lines, just as Barbara Allen and many other familiar old ballads do. Not the only consideration to be borne in mind, I know, but it may help.

I'm trying to encourage people to bring as many as possible of PlametSlade's 16 genuine gallows ballads back to life as fully-performed songs.

So far, I've got Elsa Lanchester's recording of Mrs Dyer from a long-forgotten music hall LP of hers - the only one of the 16 songs ever recorded commercially from what I can see - and my own little field recording of The Hammond School in Chester singing Gallows Child as part of their 2011 Christmas show. I'll be posting both of those audio tracks on-line soon, and I'd love to add a link taking people to your site for The Liverpool Lodger too.

If anyone else fancies joining in, you'll find full lyrics for each ballad, plus my own research on the crime that inspired it, at the PlanetSlade link above.