My point was, Jim, that you seem to say that you left the UK folk club scene (In the eighties?) when you could no longer hear folk music in a "Folk Club". The quote from MacColl seems to imply that this was already true in 1961. I'm not sure of the relevance of 'The Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion'. (For those who don't know,the Purple Onion was a venue in San Francisco.) It would appear that The Singers was a bit of a rarity even then.

"hop on a train to Lewes". Give it a try, you might even enjoy it and be a bit surprised by the existence of something that you deny.