I suspect that this was brought to the BBC's attention by the publicity department of Edward II and Jennifer Reid who have recently been involved in separate projects of their own using the Manchester Broadside collection. As Nigel says "discovered" was quite the wrong word as I was under the impression that they hadn't been lost! Most of the ballads that were shown were included in Roy Palmer and Harry Boardman's folder "Manchester Ballads" that was published in 1983. Ten years ago, Chris Pollington and I recorded a double CD of all 35 songs in that collection (including the original tune to The Calico Printer's Clerk written by C. Coote Jr to the words of Harry Clifton). No mention of either of those! Mark Radcliffe's throwaway line when he was flicking through the sheets in the library about "even one about ballooning whatever that was about" deserved an explanation that James Sadler used the recently invented hot air balloon to hold demonstrations in Manchester of a manned ascent in what is now called Balloon Street just across the road from Victoria Station. Anybody with a Co-op bank account will recognise the address! All in all an advert for two parties who have recently come across the ballads but a wasted opportunity to illustrate the history of Manchester as seen in the ballads written through the century. More could have been said about "The Great Flood" which told of how coffins and bodies were uprooted from Philips Park Cemetery, What about the Peterloo Massacre which "The Meeting at Peterloo" chronicles? Songs about hardship in the cotton industry especially the cotton famine of the 1860s didn't get a mention. I suppose you can only get so much in the ten minutes they had available. Mark
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