WEST Devon husband and wife folk duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman last week triumphed at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, winning the trophy for 'Best Duo'.

The couple, who live in Horrabridge, collected their award at the lavish ceremony at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, which was broadcast live on TV and radio.

They had also been nominated for 'Best Original Song' in the BBC awards, but lost out narrowly to solo singer Emily Portman.

Sean Lakeman said they were very pleased to have won the award: 'It was a very strong category — everybody was so good and so well respected that it makes the win even more enjoyable. This will have a big impact for us, it's really quite great.'

The duo only recently hit the road together again after the release of the new CD 'Hidden People', critically acclaimed as one of the folk albums of the year.

In recent years Sean, 38, has been producing CDs for his younger brother Seth, as well as touring the world in his band as a guitarist. In that time they have sold 300,000 albums, Seth was nominated for a Mercury Music Award, had a top ten album and Sean produced his gold disc, two silver discs and top ten hit CD album.

Meanwhile Kathryn, 37, has been bringing up twins Poppy and Lily, who are now six and at school. But now they are back on the road touring major festivals and concert venues.

Kathryn's original song nominated for the award, 'The Ballad of Andy Jacobs', from the Hidden People CD, was inspired by her childhood memories of growing up during the miner's strike in a Yorkshire pit village.

Kathryn was a teenage sensation in a duo with Kate Rusby. They won a folk album of the year award in 1995 and Kathryn was also the first-ever BBC Young Folk Award winner as a solo singer.

Kathryn and Kate Rusby first found fame and success when they teamed up with the three Lakeman brothers — Sean, Sam and Seth — to form the folk-pop group Equation, which was signed to Warner Music's Blanco Negro label.

Kate then turned solo and her place was taken by Irish singer Cara Dillon.

Cara married other Lakeman brother Sam and they too now tour the world performing gigs.

Kathryn and Sean will be touring and playing major gigs during this year, including Chagstock Festival and Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival.

They have two Devon gigs coming up at the Church House in South Tawton and Otterton Mill at Budleigh Salterton, but both gigs sold out months in advance.

They are also nominated for 'Best Duo' and 'Best Original Song' in the Spiral Earth Awards. The public can vote for these categories by visiting http://www.spiralearth.co.uk">www.spiralearth.co.uk

Another West Devon musician triumphed at the BBC Awards — Nic Jones, from Buckland Monachorum, won Folk Singer of the Year.

Nic is back on the road for a handful of rare gigs this year, 30 years after he almost died and was forced to give up music when a car crash put him in hospital for a year and left him unable to play the guitar or fiddle.