Michael, many thanks for checking the track. I tried to get a freebee on iTunes but the bit they played for free didn't go that far. In my opinion the fact that both sets of Mancunians sing it without the obvious rhyme would suggest the Barnsley version supercedes the Mancunian version, but I accept this does not definitively prove anything.

I didn't mean to be severe on you. I thought your comment might have been tongue in cheek and I was responding accordingly.

We have established beyond reasonable doubt the origins of plenty of folk songs on this forum, Harry Clifton and Joe Geoghegan (Bolton) songs for instance. You know very well I don't subscribe to the hairy fairy origins in your example, quite the opposite.

If I offended you I apologise unreservedly.