< Back

Biddenden cakes – Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst

Date made: 1898

Maker / artist: unknown


Material: biscuit, pastry, card, tin

Period: Victorian

On display: no

Accession number: F4759.1-3

Biddenden cake, imprinted with the image of Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst, a pair of conjoined twins, supposedly born in Biddenden, Kent in the year AD 1100. Income from land they bequeathed to the village paid for a dole of food and drink to the poor every Easter. The legend became popular in Victorian times when thousands of rowdy visitors flocked to the village, and sometimes kept a Biddenden cake as a souvenir. Complete (with post card, explanatory poster and tin).

Categorised in: