The notes by Dave Bland to the LP A Fine Hunting Day: Songs of The Holme Valley Beagles. Leader LEE 4056 quote an interesting account of the history of the musical arrangement for the Holmfirth Anthem.

In an article published in 1962 in a "local newspaper" Mrs Hale Mason wrote:-

"The music, which is founded on an ancient ballad, was harmonised and arranged by Joe Perkins, of Cliffe, Holmfirth...At the time, Mr. Perkins was conductor of the old Holmfirth Choral Society...It is said that Joe was only paid 2 gns. for arranging Pratty Flowers which certainly seems inadequate, to say the least, but as it is reputed to have taken him only three hours to finish perhaps all was well. I have been told that Joe, a woolsorter, was a lame man and walked with a stick. He worked hard at his harmonies in his grey, stone cottage while his wife, Eliza, sat on their doorstep, smoked her long clay pipe and looked out over Holmfirth far below."

Elsewhere in the notes to the LP Bright Rosy Morning: The Holme Valle Tradition, HD 851 Ian Russell states that the arranger's name is Joe Perkin (not Perkins), and that the arrangement was composed in about 1857.

Ian Russell would almost certainly be the best person to ask for any forther information about Joe Perkin.