The incident has assumed mythic status over the years, as you say; it was probably not entirely fortuitous. There seem to be grounds for thinking that Marson set up the meeting, and that Sharp was forewarned to some extent; though perhaps only on the lines of "You watch out for my gardener; you might hear something rather special".

On similar lines, Vaughan Williams, later in the same year, was invited to a Parish Tea at Ingrave so that he could meet some real traditional singers; until then his experience of folk music seems to have been through print only; though he had begun to give public lectures on the subject. He, too, reckoned to have had an epiphany on the lines of Sharp's, though in his case the singer was a Mr Pottiphar and the song was Bushes and Briars.

All new movements need, and inevitably develop, loci of this sort. They are very useful tools in that they provide identifiable points of resolution and of focus; the point at which hitherto inchoate impressions become a theory or, indeed, a revelation. They don't come out of the blue, though in retrospect they may seem to have done. On a more grandiose level, we have the revelation of the ten commandments, or, more recently, the dream of the double helix.

Withdrawing now from such rarified heights, I should explain Peter Kennedy's notes as referred to by Q. These relate to a series of illustrated lectures given by Kennedy. His reference to Bill Squires' father singing The Seeds of Love to Sharp might be misleading; certainly his father Jim Squires did sing it to Sharp, but that was in August of 1904. Kennedy later recorded it from his son, and used that recording in his lectures. John England was not mentioned in those notes because he was not recorded.

England was not an uncommon surname in the area, though of course it all contributes to the story. John England later emigrated to Canada (where one of his great-grandsons became Bishop of Toronto) and has descendents still living. England was also the maiden name of sisters Louie Hooper and Lucy White, both of whom were important singers with large repertoires, as had been their mother Sarah. We don't know, I think, if they were related to John; but it doesn't seem all that unlikely.