Their popularity took off in the 18th and 19th century, when circus sideshows began touring around the country. Human and animal conjoined twins were often the highlight of any show and commonly faked. Most of the mythos surrounding the Chulkhurst sisters comes from an 1808 broadsheet sold outside the church on Easter, and the earliest biscuit molds date to around 1790. The story is effectively split in two; the first 45% tells the story of the Maids as young children. This element of the story is filled with a deep sense of foreboding that drives the story onward and makes the reader fearful for the future of the Maids. The narrative then moves forward a few years, and we see them as young women, trying to make a name for themselves and use their talents for good. At this point, the immediate landscape that the Maids encounter broadens considerably, and we move away from the nunnery and the settlement of Biddenden, into the politics and events of the early twelfth century, that almost consume the lives of the Maids for the remainder of their years - they lived during the time of the tragedy of the White Ship.

a b c d Imaging of the Biddenden Maids, Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, archived from the original on 27 December 2010 , retrieved 13 October 2010 Kopytoff, I. 1986. The Cultural Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as a Process. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective edited by A. Appadurai. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The Maids of Biddenden" by GD Harper is a historical fiction read not to be missed! "When we eat our bread and onion, Eliza gulps always eating faster than Mary, when Eliza is full, Mary says she is too, even if she had only had a few mouthfuls...""How many children are attached to each other?...That is why everyone cries when they meet us...""Can two young maids really strike such fear in the heart of stout people?" Not if strong-willed individuals champion the acceptance of those of us who are physically or mentally challenged. In 1895, surgeon J. W. Ballantyne considered the case of the Biddenden Maids from a teratological perspective. He suggested that they had in fact been pygopagus (twins joined at the pelvis). [36] Pygopagus twins are known to put their arms around each other's shoulders when walking, and Ballantyne suggested that this accounted for their apparently being joined at the shoulders in drawings. [37] The pygopagus Millie and Christine McCoy had lived in Britain for a short time before going on to a successful singing career in the United States, and it was known from their case that such twins were capable of surviving to adulthood. [38] [note 10] A sad and heartbreaking story that is also beautiful because the characters are beautiful souls that have to face the hate and prejudice of those unable to see past their exterior.

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. Bondeson, J. 2000. "The Biddenden Maids," The Two Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels. Cornell University Press, pp. 141-159. Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst (1100–34), conjoined twins traditionally said to have lived in Biddenden. Edward Hasted, the local historian of Kent, [1] has dismissed the story of the Biddenden Maids as a folk myth, claiming that the image on the cake had originally represented two poor women and that the story of the conjoined twins was "a vulgar tradition" arising from a misinterpretation of the image, while influential historian Robert Chambers accepted that the legend could be true but believed it unlikely. Throughout most of the 19th century little research was carried out into the origins of the legend. Despite the doubts among historians, in the 19th century the legend became increasingly popular and the village of Biddenden was thronged with rowdy visitors every Easter. In the late 19th century historians investigated the origins of the legend. It was suggested that the twins had genuinely existed but had been joined at the hip only rather than at both the hip and shoulder, and that they had lived in the 16th rather than the 12th century.

Today [ edit ] An engraving of the Biddenden Maids from The Gentleman's Magazine, 1896, indicates a popular interest in their legend. a b c d e f Hasted, Edward (1798), "Parishes: Biddenden", The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, British History Online: 130–141 there has been no proof that the two sisters were conjoined - they might well have been normal twins; the chances of their survival in early times, if joined, seem slim. A Swedish doctor has suggested they could have survived." The Different Images of the Biddenden Maids: From Biscuits to Visual Markers Timbs, John (2 August 1834), "Autobiography of Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart", The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction, London: J. Limbird, 24 (675) In a Nutshell: There are some books you read for prose, and some you read for the plot. This is in the latter category. Don’t expect flowery writing. Expect a touching story, though a tad longwinded.

Personal correspondence from Mrs. Prue Stokes, local historian and Chairman of the Biddenden Historical Society, Kent, 17-23 February 2008. Links:

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] Although the annual distribution of food and drink is known to have taken place since at least 1605, no records exist of the story of the sisters prior to 1770. Records of that time say that the names of the sisters were not known, and early drawings of Biddenden cakes do not give names for the sisters; it is not until the early 19th century that the names "Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst" were first used.Six year old Eliza and Mary have spent all their life in a local abbey, hidden away from the world because of their physical oddity. The locals have never seen/heard of conjoined twins and their superstitious behaviour leads to this decision. They have only two well-wisher

Joined at the hip, the sisters overcome fear and hostility to grow into gifted and much-loved women ­– one a talented musician and song-writer, the other a caring healer and grower of medicinal plants. Entangled in the struggles for power and influence of the great Kent nobles of the time, they achieve much in their lifetimes and leave behind a legacy in Biddenden that survives to this day. Bygone Buses was based in Biddenden during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was sold to Maidstone & District Motor Services.

Analysing the English Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

If Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst did exist, it seems likely that they actually lived in the 16th century. The numbers one and five look similar in the Old English writing style, which could explain the confusion. An Elizabethan timeline could also explain why they are often depicted wearing ruffs. By their will they bequeath to the Churchwardens of the Parish of Biddenden and their successors Churchwardens for ever, certain Pieces or Parcels of Land in the Parish of Biddenden, containing Twenty Acres more or less, which now let at 40 Guineas per annum. There are usually made, in commemoration of these wonderful Phenomena of Nature, about 1000 Rolls with their Impression printed on them, and given away to all strangers on Easter Sunday after Divine Service in the Afternoon; also about 500 Quartern Loaves and Cheese in proportion, to all the poor Inhabitants of the said Parish. [4] [note 7] Commemoration of the maids continued when a post was erected with a picture of the maids on top of it which stands on the village green as a village sign. According to Stokes, this sign was the result of a competition for village signs offered by the newspaper the Daily Mail in 1922. It was designed by a man from Suffolk who knew of the village. He did not win the prize but the paper so liked the design that they gave an extra award of fifty pounds. The sign was made and stood there until the 1939-45 war when it was removed so that German invaders would not know where they were! It was returned to its position after the war and was refurbished with a new pole in about 1993. The two figures of the girls in vaguely Tudor costume have been repainted but is still the original 1922 metal. The Biddenden post can still be seen today. Historian Edward Hasted, in the third volume of The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent published in 1798, dismissed the legend of the Biddenden Maids. He claimed that the Bread and Cheese Lands were the gift of two women named Preston (although he elsewhere described the lands as having been "given by persons unknown"). [1] [note 4] Hasted stated that the Biddenden cakes had only begun to be moulded with the imprint of two women in the last 50 years (i.e. since 1748) and that the figures were intended to represent "two poor widows, as the general objects of a charitable benefaction". [1] While he mentioned a legend that the figures represent two conjoined twins who died in their 20s and bequeathed the Bread and Cheese Lands to the parish, he dismissed it as "a vulgar tradition". [1] [note 5] The Maids of Biddenden" by GD Harper is a historical fiction read not to be missed! "When we eat our bread and onion, Eliza gulps always eating faster than Mary, when Eliza is full, Mary says she is too, even if she had only had a few mouthfuls..." "How many children are attached to each other?...That is why everyone cries when they meet us..." "Can two young maids really strike such fear in the heart of stout people?" Not if strong-willed individuals champion the acceptance of those of us who are physically or mentally challenged.