I have found a sheet of music in my dad's song collection entitled 'Tom Padget draft' but not the words. However, I haven't finished going through all the files and some are not in alphabetical order.

I did find two other songs Bryan collected in Ireland dated 1970 and 1971. 1970 is when Louis Killen says he learnt Tom Padget from Bryan and the song dated 1970 was collected in Miltown Malbay, County Clare. This fits with my memory as there is a festival there every year which I recall going to, so I believe this is where Tom Padget was also collected. The other song from 1971 was collected in Gort, County Galway.

I spoke to Sandra Goddard at Sidmouth who was a regular at Brighton folk club (and still goes to Lewis) as she was a friend of the family back then and stayed in touch with my Dad after his accident. She also learnt Tom Padget from my dad and clearly recalls it as being collected in County Clare. She keeps good records of songs she has leant so probably has a note from when she learnt it from Bryan. If there is any record of who he learnt it from I am sure she would also have that.

I will have another look and see if the words to Tom Padget turn up but a lot of stuff got lost after my dad's accident and various moves. I don't read music but if anyone wants to see the sheet I found I can scan or photograph it and email it.

It is all very deja vue as I have not heard that song for many many years. In case anyone doesn't know who Bryan Blanchard was, he got involved in folk music in the early to mid 1960s when we lived in Yorkshire. He was a regular at Sheffield folk club before we moved to Sussex where he helped run Horsham folk club until 1976 - when my parents divorced - as well as being a regular at Crawley, Brighton and Lewis folk clubs. I remember a regular procession of folk artists (many of the big names now) sleeping on our sofa whilst performing at local folk clubs. He regularly sang at folk clubs across the country until his accident. He had a wide repertoire of songs and was a fine ballad singer as well as playing English Concertina and Dulcimer. Bryan was also one of the founder members of Broadwood Morris side in Sussex and played concertina for them as well as other sides after he moved away from Sussex. We as a family were regulars at many folk clubs and festivals in the 60s and early 70s. He was very keen on collecting songs but learnt mostly by ear so there is very little music in his files. I also found some instructions/guidelines on how to go about collecting amongst his files.

I think I am going to suggest my daughter learns Tom Padget so as to keep it going in the family. She will be thrilled to think Boden and Spiers and others perform a song collected by her granddad.