It would appear that Walter Pardon was one of the first children to attend Knapton's Methodist Sunday school. Methodism was fairly strong in Eastern England. Knapton had both church and chapel. This book about Knapton is quite interesting. It gives us quite a good sense of the context, I think. I can relate to this because I have ancestors myself who were Methodists (though of a rather coal mining than industrial sort on the whole). It is by Gillian Shepherd, published in 2011 published by 'Biteback Publishing' and there is a companion volume called 'Knapton Remembered' which it would also be interesting to read.

Also, in case anybody has not seen it, there is a snippet from 2014 on Pardon in here, starting about 48 minutes in, though I am thinking that most of us will have heard this line of argument before:

http://pipers.ie/source/media/?mediaId=25853

And extracts from the interview on which this is based, which I think is referenced in the original quotation, has been typed out on a mudcat thread also dated 2014 and called 'Traditional Singers Talking'.

People can make what they will of the research methodology involved. It might be interesting and on-topic to discuss it.

It is a matter of fact that Pardon was marketed for sale, and that there were lively discussion about how to do this, what should be in the package! There have been discussions also, for example, about whether 'Put a Bit of Powder on it' should have been released. I think it was argued that it did not show Pardon as a traditional singer. All this seems to be relatively factual.