Mixed blessing really
In the early days of our dabbling in making things available I was told that any of the Beeb's folk material was only available for use by buying it and the cost was an across the board one, so say, Phil Tanner singing 'Banks of Sweet Primroses' would cost the same as Elvis singing 'Love Me Tender'.
I am convinced that most of the best was recorded and hoarded; it is hopefully a matter of finding it.
Organisations like 'The British Institute of Recorded Sound' (now National Sound Archive at the British Library) were dedicated to recordings as much as they could manage and since the advent of musicologists such as the lovely Lucy Duran, that included folk music.
Until the time when these organisations are in the position to make their holdings freely available on line, we'll have to make to with the hard work and dedication of people like CJB, and who knows, one of these days Folk Music will be taken serious enough by them upstairs to realise that the material that has been obtained largely through our licence fees should be made freely available to us - stranger things have happened!!!
Jim Carroll