Clinton Heylin. Not a name I'm familiar with. Trust me, please, I really don't read the Spectator, it just came up via Google.

Sorry forgot link

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/12/the-vibrant-tradition-of-english-folk-song/

At the risk of raising peoples' blood pressures, including mine, and of being accused of being 'academic', which I am not, currently meditating issues about the *methodology* for the claims about percentages. And not just the 'How do we know the broadsides/earliest printed versions are the originals?' question. I think this thread - and others - has discussed that aspect of question. And the definitional issues.

Could the book have been more explicit on the matter of methodology, or did I miss something?

I note Roud does have an example of a ballad writer who was not working class but deliberately researched a work activity to create 'realistic' songs. I am thinking this is a cat among the pigeons example. Not saying all songs with workplace details had similar origins, just noting how ***** complicated it all is.

On the criticism in one of the articles I read (or was it a post here) that he doesn't include many songs: I have his book of folk songs, so I suppose he didn't want to do songs again and felt he had something else to say.