As I read your posts I wonder if you and Dave Spart are related.

Folklore, in England, is largely a literary record of 18th and 19th century survivals recorded by parsons and by genteel antiquarians regarding them across a gulf of class condescension.

Just because EP Thompson wrote it about Folklore doesn't mean to say it is true about folk song. I am not sure it is even true about folklore since many of the 19th century "survivals" were in fact 19th century "creations".