Identical twins spend 83 years sharing same clothes, jobs and holidays
Watch: Identical twins have spent their lives sharing jobs, clothes, holidays and playing pranks
A pair of identical twin sisters have revealed how they have lived the same lives for 83 years - sharing jobs, holidays, clothes and playing pranks on friends and family.
Margaret Wright and Maureen Hallett were born just five minutes apart on July 17 in 1940 and have been inseparable ever since.
After both failing their 11-plus exam the siblings went to the same school, going on to get the same job working as machinists at a dress making factory aged 15.
The mischievous pair regularly played pranks on their workmates by switching places at their machines to see if anyone noticed.
Over the years the sisters have never lived more than a few minutes away from each other and share clothes, the same hairdresser and even street names.
Margaret, who is the oldest, lives on Queen Eleanor Road in Northampton while Maureen lives on the next street, Queen Eleanor Terrace.
The twins say they often know when the other is not feeling well and regularly turn up to each other’s houses wearing identical outfits.
Incredibly, Margaret was married to husband Richard – who also had an identical twin Roger – for 55 years before he died in 2017 aged 76.
Maureen also married but divorced her late husband and now dotes on her five grandchildren, including 14-year twins William and Daniel.
Speaking their bond Margaret, who has six grown-up children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, says: "My sister and I have always been very close.
"We both went to the same school because we weren't clever enough to pass the 11-plus but it didn’t matter as long as we were together."
After leaving school the sisters were both hired as machinists at Lincoln Models dress-making factory in Northampton.
"We had the same hair style and wore the same glasses and clothes. People used to get us mixed up all the time," Margaret continues.
"I hated it because people used to stare."
The pair say they have the same taste in fashion and often find themselves wearing the same clothes, even if they aren't trying to dress the same.
"Maureen’s come down and knocked on my door, and I've looked and said, 'I shan't be a minute', and she's said, 'Where are you going?'
"I said: 'to change my top because it's the same as the one you've got on'."
Never tiring of each other's company, the twins say they spend every day together and are members of the same keep fit club, history society and lunch club.
Their "twin telepathy" also means they can tell when the other is feeling unwell.
"She'll phone me up and say, 'How have you been today?', and I'll say, 'A bit iffy', and she'll say, 'I've not been very well', so she knew that I wasn't feeling 100% because she wasn't," Maureen explains.
"We've always been the best of friends as well as sisters. When we were at school and at the dress making factory we'd often switch places to see if anyone noticed.
"No one ever realised and we often pretended we were the other one - it kept us entertained."
Describing the benefits of having a sibling born at the same time Maureen says she wouldn't change being an identical twin.
"Having a twin means you're never on your own and you always have a friend who knows you better than you know yourself sometimes," she adds.
"You can't have a better friend than a twin."
Additional reporting SWNS.
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