This from Malcolm Douglass in an earlier thread:

As Swan mentioned, this song has -unless new information has come to light- been found only once in tradition as such, sung by W. Sampey of Bishop Aukland in County Durham (18th. November 1949). A.L. Lloyd printed it in the first edition of his book Come All Ye Bold Miners (Lawrence and Wishart, 1952) and it took the fancy of a great many Revival singers, among them Ewan MacColl and (much) later, Christie Moore. They are all, whether they know it or not, singing Mr. Sampey's song. Lloyd gave a text in more-or-less standard English, but didn't indicate whether or not this was exactly as sung. Some years later, he printed another set (Folk Song in England, Lawrence and Wishart, 1967) with modified, dialectal text and a slightly variant tune (this is the one quoted in the DT); typically, the only provenance he gave for it was a reference to his earlier book. Whence the variations is a mystery. In his notes to the second edition of CAYBM (1978) he remarks that the song has become popular and acquired melodic variants since his publication of it; whether these should be considered traditional in the strict sense is hard to say; it is not impossible that the song may have persisted elsewhere than just in Mr. Sampey's repertoire, though on balance it does seem most likely that Lloyd was the significant agent of transmission. Lloyd also refers to what may be a variation or parody of it, The Yahie Miners, noted by George Corson in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, and published in Coal Dust on the Fiddle (Philadelphia, 1943). I haven't seen that book, so I don't know how close it may or may not be to the Durham song.

Cheers

Les