leveller,
when I was living in East Anglia.I wrote anumber of songs about East Anglian legends,The Swaffham Tinker,The Curse ofHoxne Bridge,ThePakefieldParson,these along with other songs are available in my songbook.http://www.dickmiles.com
Greg.I agree with you about Comhaltas.
one thing that one can say about the english instrumental sound,is that [in my experience]it is not as highly ornamented as the most irish styles that one hears today,this could be a result of Comhaltas input,because Comhaltas place an importance in their competition system[high markingfor ornamentation],they[Comhaltas] have in fact altered styles.
I suspect that the styles English /Irish instrumental]at one time may have been closer, musically .Dick Miles