Life's very strange at times; this morning I picked up the music book I'd borrowed from the music library last week, but not had the time to look through. It fell open at this song, which I'd not heard of before!
The version is as given by Malcolm, from a tape contributed by Bert (A) Dobson of Todmorden. Notes say that he worked as a school master in Bradford, and learnt many of the songs in the pub which his family kept. In verse 1 the phrase used is'flayed a been seen'and this is explained as the dialect version of 'afraid of being seen.

The book, btw, is Songs of the Ridings, collected by M and N Hudleston and published by G Pindar, Scarborough in 2001 (Words and Music)