The Halliard found the words in the Harkness Collection in the Harris Reference Library in Preston. Dave Moran said;

"Nic [Jones] and I and mandolin/guitar player Nigel Paterson made up the Halliard. We were looking to develop some new music and we took the advice of song-writer Leslie Shepard. We decided to add tunes to Broadsides that we discovered, uncovered or collected – we checked out the Harkness Collection at Preston and the collections in Manchester etc.

"Nic and I wrote all the tunes together, usually sitting in the front of the Mini and singing and working out tunes as we drove – as the mandolin was the smallest instrument and Nigel was in the back, he always played the tunes. 'Jones and Moran' wrote a heap of songs like this including Lancashire Lads, Going for a Soldier Jenny, Miles Weatherhill, Calico Printer's Clerk etc. We wrote the tunes to fit the words and sometimes added or altered words, as in The Workhouse Boy."

The Calico Printer's Clerk/She was very fond of Dancing was one of the Manchester Ballads gathered together by Harry Boardman and Roy Palmer and published by Manchester City Council. Chris Harvey of Cock Robin Music and Mark Dowding have restored the song to the original tune by Charles Coote on their recording of the entire set of "Manchester Ballads".