The Albert Chevalier song was about a couple who were being separated after a lifetime together, because poverty was forcing them into the workhouse. Perhaps they would from now on only be allowed to visit each other under supervision for maybe an hour a week.

Albert Chevalier used to perform it in front of a painted backdrop of the workhouse.

I'm not sure why you think its not worth a slot in the pantheon of folk music, but to me it speaks more eloquently about the England my family grew up in than any of the stuff you've cited as shining examples.

The workhouses under thin disguise were in operation right into the 1950's. When I was a small child, I was taken to see my Grandma's sister who lived in one one of these places.

As for my hatred of traditional song. That is so offensive. I have run folk clubs for much of my life booking many singers specialising in traditional song.

This truculence of character isn't a testimony to vitality. Its craziness.