"1948 - The Song Collector. The record of a folk song-collecting trip in Teesdale, Yorkshire. Produced by Olive Shapley"

How I would love to hear that programme! Although since Delph (home of Beckett Whitehead) is a long way from Teesdale I'm a bit puzzled by the title.

I've always wondered whether Mr. Whitehead actually sang 'Four Loom Weaver' at all, or perhaps showed MacColl a copy of the old 'Jone O' Grinfilt' broadside in a book (Beckett, far from being the unlettered weaver of common portrayal, was a highly self-educated man, expert and enthusiastic about local dialect, history and geology). At any rate the tune to which the J. O' G. broadsides were traditionally sung bears no resemblance to the superbly dramatic beast that we now associate with 'Four Loom Weaver'. But it seems that this programme did indeed include footage of B. W. singing it....

It's also worth mentioning for those not in the know that Mr. Whitehead's 'A-Beggin' I Will Go' goes to that jaunty tune you can find here in the DT (and in the Folksongs of Britain and Ireland book) rather than the moody modal tune that most people now would recognize. It doesn't contain any reference to being 'blind at Dukinfield' either.