Biddenden Maids newspaper cutting, Kent, England, 1801-1900
1801-1900
This image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
License
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
A cake of the Biddenden maids, with newspaper cutting, English, 19th century
The Biddenden maids, Elisa and Mary Chulkhurst (1100-1134), were conjoined twins named after their home town of Biddenden, in Kent, England. They lived for 34 years joined at their hips and shoulders until they died, six hours apart. The twins are said to have left land to the Church, the rental income from which was to be used to purchase food for the poor to be distributed on Easter Sunday. Souvenir cakes made from plaster and bearing their image were also distributed. Today, cakes are distributed to the elderly on Easter Monday. The items are shown here with Biddenden bread casts (A203659).
Details
- Category:
- Ethnography and Folk Medicine
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A4788
- Materials:
- in-complete and bread
- Measurements:
-
overall: 14 mm x 48 mm x 106 mm, .03kg
- type:
- cast and newspaper cutting
- credit:
- Wellcome Trust (Purchased from Stevens)
