i ha a similiar experience to the one vic described, i used to play with an old fiddler who lived 5 miles away from me, here in west cork, he played a number of tunes apart from standard irish repertoire, and overall he sounded pretty much like walter bulwer.
i havent answered wills question so far, becasue i think the best advice is to go and seek recordings of trad musicians listen and decide for yourself.
alan, its hard to compare other southern english musicians from other areas because so little has been collected, scan tester was a concertina player[very few of then in east anglia]of the fiddle players we have stephen baldwin from herefordshire, he is worth comparing to eeley whent and spanker austin, but all my recordings are on lps and i do not have time or expertise to transfer them.