Did the people responsible for the tradition ever describe themselves as folk singers or use the word tradition? I imagine they were work songs, hearth songs or just 'the old songs'. The Wheelbarrow is a quasi-worksong, a spectator song, what I believe folklorists describe as a 'blason populaire' a song aimed at the mockery of other nations, counties, or neighbouring villages to expose the difference of the 'alien' and unite insiders.