"Walter had not sang out for many years because local people scorned his family songs,"
Wrong again on both counts.
Walter had nevre sung in public - not ever, until he was introduced to the folk revival.
He heard the songs sung as a boy at Christmas parties and harvest suppers - he sang only one song at them "Dark Eyed Sailor" "because nobody wanted that".
When he came back from the army in 1946, his Uncle Billy, the main source of his songs, had died, so he decided to gather the family songs together, write them down and memorise the tunes he remembered, by playing them on a melodeon.
His cousin's nephew, Roger Dixon, who was Peter Bellamy's tutor, was aware of them, and persuaded Walter top put them on tape - which he gave to Peter.
His first public singing outside the family was to Bill Leader.
His family never sang outside the home - at Christmas Parties and earlier, Harvest suppers, so they couldn't have stopped singing because the neighbours didn't like the songs.
One of the great surprises to Walter was that when the BBC came to North Walsham in the early fifties none of the surviving members of his family were recorded because the locals were not aware that they sang.
All this is a matter of record - in articles and radio programmes by Karl Dallas and Mike Yates, on radio and TV documentaries and on record sleeve notes.
Will you stop spouting "facts" that are grossly inaccurate and which you have no idea about.
We interviewed Walter extensively for twenty years - in his home and in ours.
Those interviews are in The British Library and in Dublin if you would like to verify what I say - all in Walter's own words.
The old engineers adage might suit here - please do not put the mouth in motion until the brain is fully engaged.
Jim Carroll