“And people would come by all the time and stay, which was lovely.

“We had an Indian musician come and stay for a while, who played the sitar, and a fellow from California who played the banjo, oh and a big Cajun family who sat round playing fiddles and accordions.

“Then, when I was about 13, Chris Wood started staying a lot and he was very inspirational in me taking up the violin.”

Eliza would later collaborate with Wood, Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year 2002, on the modern folk album The Imagined Village in 2007.

But it was a meeting with a different musician that would first ignite her interest in becoming a professional performer.

“I played the piano from when I was eight, proper lessons and everything, and then my grandad died when I was about 11 and I inherited his fiddle,” she says.

“My mum was very keen for me to play it but I wasn’t really.

“Then when I was 14 or 15 met Nancy Kerr.

“She knew loads of tunes and it was a different kind of music.

“Classical music on the fiddle was a bit wussy, I didn’t like it, I thought the tunes were stupid.”

They worked on two albums together before Eliza decided to go solo and also collaborate with a range of artists including Billy Bragg.

Performing with family is one of the most rewarding experiences, however.

“It’s great, especially for me because I moved away from the village years ago and they all still live within two miles of each other,” says Eliza.

“It’s nice to get to spend time with my cousins and aunt and uncle.

“It’s kind of like Christmas in some ways.”

THE Waterson Family play the Philharmonic Hall tonight.