[1] During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Tippett was hired to organize the musical life at the Cleveland Work Camps for unemployed miners in North Yorkshire.
As part of his work there, he revised and abridged John Gay's The Beggar's Opera for performances in the church hall next to the Miners' Institute in Boosbeck.
Encouraged by its success, he composed a ballad opera of his own, Robin Hood, with a subtext that reflected the difficulties faced by the unemployed miners.
Performers in the opera included friends of the composer such as Wilfred Franks, and local miners such as Tom Batterbee.
[3] Nevertheless, some of the songs from the opera were sung again in 2009 at the Station Hotel in Boosbeck and recorded for the BBC Radio 3 Programme Music Matters.