Fred Jordan (5 January 1922 – 30 July 2002[1]) was a farm worker from Ludlow, Shropshire, and is noted as one of the great musically untutored traditional English singers.
He knew many versions of the famous Child Ballads, including The Outlandish Knight, Barbara Allen, Four Marys, Henry My Son, The Three Crows, The Watery Grave.
In 1952 Peter Kennedy, working for the BBC on secondment from the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) made further recordings of Jordan on a farm at Diddlebury.
[1] Fred remained unchanged by his success and fame, continuing to live a simple life without radio, television or running water at his primitive cottage in Aston Munslow, near Craven Arms.
Jordan left his cottage in 2001 to live in a residential home in Ditton Priors due to poor health, where he died at the age of 80 on Tuesday 30 July 2002 following a heart attack.