Nice extract, Jon.

We collected 2 very different versions in the little village of Aldbrough on the Yorkshire coast, c1970. One was sung and accumulative with a spoken introduction dialogue between a fisherman and his son, and the other was all recited, non-accumulative, and started 'As I was a walking on Bolliton Sands, I picked up a herring as big as me hand, and what do you think etc. Both versions can be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website.