Some years ago I was watching Heartbeat with an Australian friend who quite naively asked me why they kept playing all of these songs from the 60s. I very patiently explained to her that it was well known that Tykes were the most musical race on Earth and that we were responsible for most of the world's great music and that these songs were just a sample of works compsed by Yorkshire men and women. Then the Devil hit me and I came up with an even more cruel line, did she know that a lot of so called folk songs had actually been stolen from old Yorkshire folk songs. I was really on a roll, I started to spontaneously compose and sing the 1st two verses of Whitby Bay, here goes.
WHITBY BAY
If tha iver goes ower t’sea to Yorkshire,
Thin happen at th’end o’ t' day,
Tha’ll sit en watch t’moon rise ower Ilkla,
En see t’sun go down ower Whitby Bay.

Just to hear again t’ripple o’ t’ trout beck,
T’ lasses in t’ mills spinnin’ wool;
En ter sit besides a crackin’ coil fire
En watch t’ younguns laikin about.

Can anybody else think of other folk songs that belong in this genre?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains Australia

That song became "Watching the River Flow" by Dylan. He rips 'em off from Japan to Yorkshire.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-66

Of course there is a genuine classical composer born in Yorkshire (Bradford) Frederick Delius, who's father was a wool merchant. He got syphilis, and went blind, and for much of his life had to dictate music to an emanuensis Eric Fenby (from Scarborough I think). Like Elgar and Holst, he died in 1934 (a bad year for British Musicians!)
I suppose his best known work is irreverently known as 'On cooking the first hero in Spring'

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

On the subject of Yorkshire folk tunes being ripped off by commercial folk singers Bob Dylan was not the only one to do that.

I know for a fact that the excellent Neil Young based his marvellous 'Sugar Mountain' on 'Ilkla Moor B'tat' after he visited Yorkshire in the late sixties from his native Toronto.

Come back Neil all is forgiven.

The greatest Yorkshire lyricist of the 20th century must be Jake Thackray. He wrote dozens of wonderful Yorkshire songs. Who else could have started a song with the lines:
"I luv a good bum on a woman, it makes my day.
To me it is palpable proof of God's existance a
posteriori ......"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds