"It is inconceivable that there weren't many songs about the machine breakers, and the Swing Rioters which wouldn't have been sung in polite company because of their seditious nature"

One of the things I enjoyed about Roy Palmer's 'Working Songs' book is that he managed to find evidence for things like machine-breaking songs actually being sung in Pennine pubs.

John Harland in 'Ballads and Songs of Lancashire' reports the popularity of the Henry Hunt and 'Tyrants of England' songs, and verses on the deliberate torching of Grimshaw's mill. None of this stuff turns up in the classic 'folk' collections, though that may be because the themes were no longer current, rather than selection bias on the part of collectors.

As for 'Banks of Sweet Primroses', I don't smell much cow shit in that one.