Lizzie - I add my voice to those who ask how the music was locked away.

The first journal with the results of folk song collecting came out in 1899 and it has been published at least yearly ever since. Hardly an example of locking materials away I would have thought. Every collector published at least some of their work in the journal.

Take virtually any book published about folk song in the last fifty years and a debt to the VWML is acknowledged. It is open to anyone who calls in and I doubt there is a singer since the revival who would not acknowledge its influence.

The first edition of the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (1959) was based on the collections in the VWML, ran to three editions and has since been re-published by the society. In the late 60's/early 70's a series of books based on collections within the VWML Marrow Bones, Wanton Seed, Constant Lovers and Foggy Dew were published by the society and are in the process of being re-published. MArrow Bones is already done and Wanton Seed is almost finished.

Now, there's my evidence that the stuff was available, tell us yours to show how it was locked away as you suggested.