HOME is where the heart is for chart-toppers Catherine and Lizzy Ward-Thomas who are back in Liss after making music history.

Twins Catherine and Lizzy – country duo Ward Thomas – headed back to the farmhouse where they grew up to celebrate with parents Mandy and Anthony.

It has been quite a week for the 22-year-old sisters who have become the first country act to top the official album chart.

“This week has been nuts, so exciting,” a jubilant Lizzy, the youngest twin by two minutes, told the Post.

“We were hoping for top 40, and as the week went on our manager was saying we might get a top ten, then a top five, and with days to go we were wandering around with a chance of getting a number one. It was so tense when we knew we were in with a chance and we didn’t believe it when we made it.”

Their good friends here, and family love and support, keeps their feet on the ground, they say, amid all the excitement and their growing fame.

“Our family and friends are very, very supportive and that definitely helps to keep us normal,” said Lizzy. “There’s a bit more pressure now, as this is our second album, and we have expectations to fulfil. But there are great challenges too and it’s going to be fun.”

The countryside of East Hampshire has inspired many of their songs too. This began on their debut album From Where We Stand in 2014, and has carried on with their soaringly successful second album Cartwheels.

The key is writing about what they know rather than traditional Americana country themes they have no experience of, explained Lizzy.

“We write a lot of our songs here in our house and we write about what we know and what we have experienced here in the UK, and people can relate to that. We don’t write about cowboys and trucks because we don’t know anything about them,” she said.

They recorded their debut album in Nashville, and the song Cartwheels was written there, and the trip was incredibly inspiring to the siblings.

But they have made a sound of their own – modern country with a British twist.

They put their appeal down to this accessibility and factors including Dolly Parton’s crowd-pleasing appearance at Glastonbury two years ago, and a Nashville programme on TV.

“We have been lucky with the timing, and in the UK more and more people are getting into country,” added Lizzy.

For now though, they are relaxing at home, and letting the week’s incredible news sink in.