It was interesting to hear that a song from Howden in Yorkshire was collected in Cardington in Shropshire, since there is a connection between the two places.
They are the two towns where the two great airships, the R100 and the R101 were built.
Since the Shropshire version was collected in the 1950's, it's entirely possible that it made its way to Cardington in the repertoire of some folk-singing Airship engineer.
Cheers
Dave