Reaching their 90th birthday has done nothing to diminish the bond between west Wiltshire twins Florence Griffin and Rose Bishop.

The twins, who celebrated their landmark birthday with a family party, told the Wiltshire Times of their lives together and how they don’t share a sixth sense – a trait often reported among twins.

Mrs Griffin, formerly of Oldfield Park, Westbury, and Rose Bishop, of The Tynings, Westbury, were born on May 19, 1919, in Blaina, south Wales.

The Collier sisters, who had an older brother, Leonard, moved to Westbury at the age of one when their father found work as a street cleaner with Westbury Rural District Council.

The family first lived on Gibbs Close and later moved to a larger house in Springfield Road where the twins enjoyed large birthday parties. Mrs Bishop said: “We had some big fields near our house and held the parties there. We used to play ball and whistling top – we always used to share our toys.”

After leaving school, the twins both went to work at Bitham Cloth Mills where Mrs Griffin was employed as a weaver and Mrs Bishop as a knotter.

It was during this time that Mrs Griffin met her future husband Garfield Cutlan, who she married at Westbury Methodist Church in 1939. They had a two daughters, Shirley, now 66, who lives in South Wales, and Diane who sadly died in 1988, aged 43.

She married Roy Griffin in 1972 after her first husband, who was in the RAF, died of kidney problems in 1958.

Mrs Bishop said: “We always used to be together until Florence started courting Garfield and so I went dancing a lot. We had better fun than the kids do today.”

Mrs Griffin, who is now living at Brookside Care Home in Ruskin Avenue, Melksham, added: “There were times when I felt she was lonely when I was first married but she said she was fine, so I guess we don’t have a sixth sense.”

Mrs Bishop, who worked at the Spitfire factory in Bristol during the Second World War, married another twin, John Bishop, at Westbury Parish Church in 1954. They had a daughter, Gillian.

Talking about what was special about being a twin, she said: “You’ve always got one another and if you want to talk privately and you don’t want anyone else to know, your twin is there.”

The sisters celebrated their birthday with family members, some of whom had travelled from Bedford and Wales, at a meal at the Foresters Arms in Melksham, last Saturday.