Why We Love York – Memories Facebook group<\/a> to share their recollections of the city’s most talked-about twins.\n<\/p>\n\n Many remembered regularly seeing Greta and Freda walking through Tang Hall, Hull Road, Fulford and Acomb, often dressed identically and moving in step with one another.\n<\/p>\n
\n Debbie Hilton, who grew up in Melrosegate, recalled being fascinated by the pair as a child.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I remember them as I grew up in Melrosegate,” she wrote. “They fascinated me how they dressed with their long coats and headscarves and took steps in line together.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Robert Wall had similar memories.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They’d walk down our lane walking in step with each other and seemed to be talking to each other at the same time,” he said. “They scared us as kids.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Others echoed that mix of fascination and mystery which surrounded the sisters for decades.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ness Oconnor remembered: “They scared me and my sister when we were young uns.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Several readers recalled seeing Greta and Freda almost daily during their school years.\n<\/p>\n
\n George Marray lived close to the twins’ home and passed it on his way to Derwent School.\n<\/p>\n
\n He remembered them as being extremely quiet and living largely in their own world.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Even Ada my mum who knew everyone and everyone knew her as chatty could not get a word out of them,” he wrote.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![]()
The Chaplin twins’ home in York with an inset of the twins – photo from A Pair of One documentary by Juliet Darling\n<\/p>\n
\n Looking back, George reflected that the sisters were accepted by local residents despite their unusual behaviour.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Post-war no one bothered them and they stuck together with us all accepting as they chose to be,” he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Chaplins’ distinctive appearance remains one of the strongest memories for many readers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Christine Tallents said: “I remember them clearly. Always matching raincoats and headscarves.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Sheila Richmond remembered frequently seeing them walk past her Hull Road home, while Lorraine Hagues recalled spotting them around Paragon Street on her journey home from St George’s School.\n<\/p>\n
\n Others encountered the sisters in professional settings.\n<\/p>\n
\n Andrew Shipley said his late father cared for them while working as a staff nurse at Naburn Hospital.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ian Hood shared a striking family story, writing: “My mum nursed them for a while in Bootham Park. You could ask one a question, and at the other side of the hospital, the other would answer.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Irene Hardy also remembered the sisters from her time working at Bootham.\n<\/p>\n
\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n
\n Some readers described more personal interactions.\n<\/p>\n
\n Virginia Eland said the twins would sit on her garden wall while waiting for a bus during the 1970s.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They used to talk constantly,” she recalled.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pat Reilly remembered serving them in a shop.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They used to say in unison, ‘No bag, no bag’,” he wrote.\n<\/p>\n
\n The sisters’ lifelong devotion to one another was another recurring theme in readers’ comments.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![]()
Freda and Greta Chaplin\n<\/p>\n
\n Jayne Whale recalled seeing Freda visit her sister’s grave after Greta’s death in 2007.\n<\/p>\n
\n “She went to the cemetery every day to Greta’s grave, walking round and round in a circle, wearing down the grass, talking to her,” she wrote.\n<\/p>\n
\n Claire Myles Wharton made a similar observation, claiming the regular visits wore away patches of grass around the grave.\n<\/p>\n
\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n
\n Not everyone welcomed the Hollywood adaptation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Barbara Boyce said she found it “a bit sad” that the twins’ story was being turned into a fictional drama, while Patrick Martin joked that the stars cast to portray them looked “a bit too glamorous”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Others expressed curiosity about the film. John Grant suggested “From Tang Hall to Hollywood” would have made the perfect title, capturing the extraordinary journey of two York women whose lives have now inspired a major international production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THEY fascinated York for decades. Now they’re the subject of a Hollywood film. Readers have shared vivid memories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-762658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}