Not knowing the provenance of a song makes it a folk song in some ways. After all, if you knew if religion was true or not, you wouldn't need the religion in either case.

There was a singer, an old man, long gone now, bless him who was a hit at festivals and clubs, due to his being able to talk about the industry he sang about from when he was working in it before the war. All good stuff. He used to say he learned this song at his mother's knee. To this day, my collection of Martin Carthy albums have a special shelf in my study, where I have written "Mother's Knee" on the shelf.

No names, no pack drill, but fond memories all the same.