He and I were lucky, as were most of our generation in England at the time, in that the singing of English folk song was encouraged in schools. There was a schools radio programme called "Singing Together" that was, for me, one of the high points of the week when I was in primary school.

Perhaps I'm reading something into this that is not there... What years did you have Singing Together? They always encouraged folk songs (in the English laguage) but in my years and later, I would not describe the effort as specifically "English Folk Song". In my time they also had English translations/ adaptations of "foreign language" songs. Even in the earliest edition I have to hand (Spring 1967), I find Lisa Lan (Welsh) and Ho-La-Hi (German). Then of course in the same pamphlet we have Jim-along-Josie (American) and Queen Mary (Scots) on top of that.