The Maids of Biddenden: The heart-warming and inspirational story of 12th-century Kent's conjoined twins.

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Many opportunities were denied to Eliza and Mary, however, unimaginable doors opened. Gifted with a lyre, later a vielle, Eliza became a well respected musician and writer of songs/poems. Mary became a skilled healer building upon observations made at the knee of Sister Agnes in her medicinal plant garden. Upon the deaths of Eliza and Mary, their joint will stipulated that rent collected from their lands, called "The Bread and Cheese Lands" would be used by the church wardens to minister to the elderly and poor. Donations are collected each Easter. This tradition, started nine hundred years ago, still continues.....

I enjoyed this remarkable imagination of the lives of Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst, a tale inspired by real-life conjoined sisters in 12 th Century Kent. Little is known of the tangible history of the twins but there is an interesting section at the end with knowledge on their lives and their legacy that remains evident today in Biddenden, Kent. The Maids of Biddenden is inspired by the real-life story of conjoined twins Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst, born in 1100 into a wealthy family from a small Kent village. Many characters are met along the way and the reader observes the everyday lives, the beliefs, superstitions, and fears of 12 th Century folk, which G D Harper has portrayed with an authentic feel alongside his excellent descriptions of setting and character, vividly bringing a less-unknown era alive for me. It is an evidently well researched piece of fiction. The pacing remains steady throughout, and I found the ending perfectly written. The narrative voice switches occasionally from third-person to first-person, with these first-person viewpoints from Eliza and Mary. This narrative voice from the Maids as children was the only thing that did not work for me personally; while it does give an immediate connection to the two sisters, allowing an intimate insight into their thoughts, hopes and understandings, the language and understanding they related was not age appropriate for the two young children who are portrayed to have been deprived from the outside world and from education. Later on, as adults, this narrative voice worked far more effectively, especially in portraying their thoughts and feeling towards each other.No family named Preston is recorded as having lived in or near Biddenden during the period in question. Records exist of a family named Chulkhurst living in Biddenden in the 17th and 18th centuries. [21] For instance, one of the earliest visual representations of the Biddenden maids, after their image appeared in a broadsheet in 1808, is a printed postcard postmarked August 4, 1939 by Young and Cooper in Maidstone, Kent. The Biddenden maids are elegantly dressed in the costume of the time of Mary I. Here, while the writer notes that "the charity in charge of the dole no longer persist," the postcard is created as a substitute to commemorate this particular event. The postcard being accessibly possessed as souvenir in printed form. While current postcards are mostly views of Biddenden, an item which includes the original image of the Biddenden twins as part of the charity's history is sold at the Biddenden Church. And thrive they do! Both girls show the world to be in possession of talents unique to them: Mary in healing and Eliza in music and poetry. The conjoined twins are so different from each other you can feel their desperation to be cleaved and be separate, but also can feel the deep love and loyalty they hold for each other. Mary, bookish and shy, and Eliza, brash and outgoing, have to learn to live supporting what the other does and wants, even if that means sacrificing their own desires. But they find contentment and earn the love and respect of those who know them, from nobles to peasants, even if there's always the occasional rude person taking it out on them.

Today [ edit ] An engraving of the Biddenden Maids from The Gentleman's Magazine, 1896, indicates a popular interest in their legend. There are also other representations of the Biddenden maids in a rather modern way depicting them in red bodices of floor-length Tudor gowns. The Tudor dress in the 15th to the 16th century has ornate clothing which exemplifies how wealthy a person was, and thought that more likely that the twins lived in the 16th century than in the 12th century. This sculpted wooden figure is about 3 feet tall which stands outside the West House, a 16th century house in High Street, Biddenden. The house is now an award winning restaurant which was also at one time a craft shop. Moreover, it is also thought that it is in the All Saints Church, a Romanesque church that has an attached cemetery where the grave markers of the sisters, Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst were to be found a long time ago. All Saints Biddenden is the parish church, built mostly in the 13th century. There was likely an earlier Saxon church here. During the half-century reign of Edward III, Flemish clothworkers were settled in the area. The ready availability of raw materials led to the establishment of a flourishing textile industry for the production of broadcloth. Wealth from this industry built many of the fine houses in town. Bondeson, Jan (2006), Freaks: The Pig-Faced Lady of Manchester Square & Other Medical Marvels, Stroud: Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-7524-3662-7 This is the heart-warming and inspirational story of two remarkable women leading one joint life, challenging adversity to become the best they can be.But no matter when (or if) they lived, there is no denying that Eliza and Mary Chulkhurt are a beloved part of local lore and a symbol of sisterly love. According to one story when Mary passed before her sister, a local surgeon wanted to separate them to potentially save Eliza’s life. She refused, reportedly saying, “as we came together, we will also go together.”

An Old Kent Charity". News in Brief. The Times. No.51662. London. 11 April 1950. col D, p.3. (subscription required) It has been claimed that an account of the Maids was published in 1660, but this is believed to be a later addition which was pasted into the 1660 book. [17] Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst (1100–34), conjoined twins traditionally said to have lived in Biddenden.

Heaton, J. D. (17 April 1869), "United Twins", British Medical Journal, London: British Medical Association, 1869 (1): 363, PMC 2259775 Biddenden Place was the ancestral home of the Mayney or Mayne family: the village school, originally founded in 1522, is named after its benefactor John Mayne. [4] Biddenden Maids [ edit ]