Do note that the original request was made nearly 3 years ago!
To return to Snuffy's post. Shirley Collins herself said this:
"My tune is based on a recording of the singer Phoebe Smith, collected by Peter Kennedy. A textual variant of the blacksmith theme is found as the song Our Captain Calls, and versions of this have tunes similar to the present one. It is from a set of the latter that Vaughan Williams developed the hymn tune Monksgate, I use the final half stanza from a version of Our Captain Calls collected by Cecil Sharp." (The Sweet Primroses, Topic TSCD 476).
Phoebe Smith's set (Suffolk rather than Sussex) was noted by Peter Kennedy in 1956, and appears in his book Folksongs of Britain and Ireland; Shirley seems only to have changed it a little and conflated two verses.
A BLACKSMITH COURTED ME
(Noted from Phoebe Smith, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1956, by Peter Kennedy)
For a blacksmith he courted me, just nine months or better
Until he won my heart, wrote to me a letter.
With his hammer in his hand, strikes his blows so neat and clever
And if I were with my love, I'd live forever.Now he talks about going abroad, fighting for strangers
And he'd better stay at home, and keep from all dangers
For you stay at home with me, my dearest jewel
And you stay at home with me, and don't prove cruel.My true love's gone across the sea, gathering fine posies
My true love's gone across the sea, with his cheeks like roses
I'm afraid that broiling sun will spoil his beauty
And if I was with my love, I would do love's duty.For it's once I had gold in store, they all seemed to like me
But now I'm low and poor, they all seem to slight me.
For there ain't no belief in a man, nor your own brother
So it's: girls, whenever you love, love one each other.Kennedy considers The Blacksmith and Our Captain Calls (or, Cried) to be variant forms of the same song, and presumably saw this version as a kind of missing link; others would not necessarily agree.
A midi of the tune as given in Kennedy will go to the Mudcat Midi Pages: meanwhile it can be heard via the South Riding Folk Network site:
The set of Our Captain Calls from which Shirley took the final couplet came from the redoubtable Mrs. Overd (1904) as Our Captain Cried All Hands. Monks Gate is so called because the tune came from Mrs. Harriet Verrall of Monks Gate, Horsham, Sussex.
See also, in the DT, OUR CAPTAIN CRIED ALL HANDS A tune is given, but unfortunately, no source is named.