But ask them to name another one, and it is likely they will look blank for a few seconds before admitting they don't know any more.

While the Irish have thousands of folk songs at their fingertips, in Yorkshire it appears we are not as in touch with our cultural identity as we would like to think.

However, that could change as a group of music enthusiasts bring traditional Yorkshire folk music to the masses with a dedicated website where people can download songs for free.

The Yorkshire Garland group began collecting songs two years ago, inspired by the late Neil Hudleston who spent most weekends between 1958 and 1978 travelling round the region with his wife Mary recording singers who could remember the songs passed down through the generations

Mr and Mrs Hudleston taped ploughmen, milkmaids and labourers, collecting more than 500 songs, some dating back to 1600.

The collection got the attention it deserved six years ago with the publication of Songs of the Ridings, a book of 200 songs as hefty as a telephone directory.

For the last two years, Yorkshire Garland has been building on this collection, speaking to people around Yorkshire and collecting songs from libraries and museums

Committee member Ray Black said: "Go into any pub where there is live folk music and it's usually Irish – most people in Yorkshire don't know their own culture.

"It's important to find these songs because unless someone preserves them they will die with the passing of each generation. They preserve a social history and working practices that are not recorded elsewhere. They can tell you how a job used to be done."

Traditionally the songs are sung unaccompanied but Mr Black said singers nowadays often used instruments to perform them.

The songs cover a range of topics from courting, seafaring, farming and hunting and a fair amount of drinking.

A popular song originating from the East Coast is Three Score and Ten, which tells of a fishing disaster in 1889. The author, William Delf , had his song printed to raise money for the relief of the bereaved families.

Mr Black, 57, said: "Songs from the coastal areas tend to be about the sea, songs from the dales and so on are about farming, but within those songs you've also got the usual topics of love, war, arguments and so on. There are a variety of subjects and some are quite funny."

He added: "Folk songs were traditionally never written down – they were sung and heard by other people who copied them. It's like Chinese whispers and you end up with different versions of the same song or an entirely different song, adapted by people in different areas."

Most of the songs are preserved in a recorded format but Mr Black is turning some into printed music for people to download from the website.

The songs will be available as normal sheet music and there will also be a simplified version for people who cannot read music.

Initially, 20 songs will go online when the site goes live on September 15 but the collection will gradually build up over time.

Mr Black, who has been a folk music fan since he was a teenager, added: "My favourite song is the one that is the most easily available, called the Dalesman's Litany. It was a poem by the president of the Yorkshire Dialect Society in 1900 and later someone put music to it."

The oldest dated song in the collection is called York York For My Money, and dates from the 16th century.

But Mr Black said a song called The Lyke Wake Dirge pre-dated it, although no one has been able to say when it was created.

The website address is www.yorkshirefolksong.net.