Good luck with your project, Chris, and I'd be interested in seeing your play if you have any plans for producing it.

I haven't read Kevin Binfield's book Writings of the Luddites, but it sounds as if it contains a lot of the information you're looking for (if you haven't already seen it). There is an online article by Kevin Binfield about Luddite Songs which is very useful.

Roy Palmer's recent book Working Songs has quite a lot of information about the Luddites in Chapter 4 Hunger breaks fences.

Matthew