"It appeared to grow out of the skiffle scene encouraged by Alan Lomax. "
Lomax did not "inspire" the skiffle scene, which, it was reckoned was largely based on the recordings brought back to England by Ken Colyer when he was a merchant seaman
Lomax first helped inspire the BBC mopping up campaign which gave us a basis for our British and Irish repertoires and later, betrayed people like Ewan and Bert for singing American songs
The Short Lived 'Ramblers' group was an aberration and had nothing to do with the skiffle movement
It was because of Lomax's strong views that it became possible to establish policy clubs
These were early days and everybody was learning
Ewan Peggy and Bert were part of the Ballads and Blues Club (I have a recording of the live radio broadcast) and they broke with it to form a principled and decdicated folk club, e Ewan wrote an article, 'Why I am Forming a New Club' in one of Dallas's magazines
The first public performances dedicated to folk music were probably the morning concerts hed at The Theatre Royal, Stratford
Shortly afterwards similar clubs sprang up all over Britain - Manchester and Birmingham were two of them
Jim