In a recent book of papers on folk music ('Folk Song - Tradition, Revival and Re-Creation' eds. Ian Russell and David Atkinson, University of Aberdeen, 2004) there is a fascinating contribution by E.David Gregory: 'Roving Out: Peter Kennedy and the BBC Folk Music and Dialect Recording Scheme, 1952 - 1957'. This meticulously researched essay makes it clear the Peter Kennedy did a truly prodigous amount of collecting, in Britain and Ireland, in the 1950s.

As a lifelong fan of British and Irish trad. music I would like to know why I have only heard a tiny fraction of this material - especially as it was gathered with public money? Gregory lays the blame firmly at the door of the BBC: "One cannot avoid the overall conclusion that while the BBC helped to build up, during the 1950s, a tremendous library of recorded traditional music, it undervalued, under-utilised, and hoarded this resouce ... Nor did it take its archival responsibilities sufficiently seriously."

I welcome the debate on Peter Kennedy but I hope that this debate will focus on what happened to this material and address the question of how enthusiasts, like me, can get to hear whatever remains of it (at a reasonable cost, of course).