PUPILS at a Denbighshire primary school have their teachers seeing double.
There are no fewer than four sets of twins in one small school in Llanrhaeadr.
Identical twins Jac and Tomos Parry, 11, share Ysgol Bro Cinmeirch with fellow identical twins Iwan and Gethin Stockport, 9, as well as non-identical twins Cai and Jac Ffrith, 4 and Aaron and Noah Parry, 3.
“It’s quite unusual because we’re a fairly small school and they’re all boys,” said Gwennol Ellis, headteacher at the school.
“What we’ve found is the older twins are very protective of the younger ones because they know what it’s like to be a twin. Gethin and Iwan are lovely with the little ones like Cai and Jac.”
There are just 75 pupils at the school and expert Delyth Raffel says the twin percentage at the school is way above the norm.
“Four sets of twins in 75 pupils is high and to have identical twins is much rarer,” she said.
“There’s about a one in 69 chance you’ll have a set of twins and three per cent of the population are twins.”
Some may say there must be something in the water for there to be four sets of twins in one area, especially given the school’s proximity to St Dyfnog’s Well, but Ms Raffel, from Twins UK, said there is no particular reason for a higher than average number of twins.
“There’s all sorts of theories,” she said. “Some people think it’s due to something in the water or milk from the cows or the number of daylight hours.
“Incidents of twins have risen by 50 per cent in the last 20 years.
“The biggest reason is the maternal age of giving birth has risen, we’re working longer and waiting until later to have a baby. At the moment the number of twins is rising by about five per cent a year.”
The twins at Ysgol Bro Cinmeirch are not the only remarkable doubles to come out of Denbighshire.
It was a quadruple celebration in the Maloney household in August 2010 when two sets of twin sisters in the family proved to be high flyers.
Twins Charlotte and Emma Maloney, 18 at the time, collected top A’ Level results from St Brigid's, Denbigh a week before their younger twin sisters Olivia and Hollie Maloney, also students at St Brigid's, collected their GCSE results.
Twin Facts
- The scientific study of twins is known as "gemellology." The word twin is probably derived from an ancient German word twine. which means 'two together.'
- Worldwide there are at least 125 million living multiples.
- The average time between the delivery of the first and second twin is 17 minutes
- In 1853 a peasant named Kirilow was presented to the Empress of Russia as he had been married twice and his wives gave birth to 72 children including 4 sets of quads. 8 sets of triplets and 8 sets of twins.
- William Shakespeare was the father of boy/girl twins Hamnet and Judith and he also wrote about twins in The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night.