Coincidentally, a mate of mine sang the Pat Cooksy version recently at a local session. And very well he sang it - but - like many others here, I immediately had the Hoffnung version in my head the moment he started to sing it.

Hoffnung was a wonderful raconteur and people should be reminded that, though he sounded upper-class and "plummy" (to quote a previous poster), he was an incredibly sympathetic and humane respector of his fellow-men - a prison visitor, and a wonderful devotee & spoofer of classical music - who had left Nazi Germany as a boy to escape the régime there.

So we can enjoy both versions - and all the other versions - of the Bricklayer's Story without dwelling on class.