I think we have a logistical problem here Dick (Me starting the week off in a non-confrontational manner!!).

We do know that women sang - Sharp had a number of female informants. Emma Overd, and Lucy White to name two off the top of my head. Gordon Hall's mother had 2/300 songs he reckoned. A quick glance at Sharp's Appalachians book shows many many more (Yes I know that's American but bear with me).

Now we have an image (rightly or wrongly that women (especially those in the Appalachians) didn't go into pubs much and certainly not to sing.

We also have an image that men did sing in the pubs.

To me these things are not compatible. Either singing was learnt through the family and family get togethers - mainly; or it was learnt in the pub - mainly.

If it was learnt in the family and similar get-togethers then that's where the women learnt it.

If it was learnt - passed down if you like - in the pub, then it would be unlikely that women would be important song carriers yet we know that they were.

(In fact probably the greatest song carrier ever, Bell Duncan seemed to have little opportunity to visit the pub I would guess).

Ergo I would suggest that the pub played a lesser part in the carrying of the tradition than is sometimes believed.