FORTY years after sharing their wedding day, twins from Malpas got together again to celebrate their ruby wedding anniversaries.

Identical twins Margaret and Muriel Deakin spent much of their teenage years in the village when their parents ran The Crown pub.

Margaret met her future husband Eric Bickley, at Malpas Al-port Primary School.

'We moved back to Liverpool when I was 15 but I didn't like it so when I was old enough I returned to Malpas,' said Margaret.

Having shared most things in their lives, Margaret and Muriel , aged 21, decided to get married on the same day, Sunday, August 7, 1966, at the same church in identical wedding gowns.

'We were two of the first couples to get married on a Sunday,' said Margaret, who is a carer at Prospect House in Malpas. 'I think the law had only just changed.

'The Liverpool Echo and a few other papers came to take pictures and we even ended up in an American magazine.'

Margaret and Eric were joined by Muriel and husband Donald Feather to celebrate 40 years of married life with friends and family at Tilston Memorial Hall.

'There were 84 of us there, it was a great night,' said Margaret.

Margaret and Eric have three children and three grandchildren. Eric, a Malpas parish councillor, works at Chester Zoo.

Muriel and Donald, live in Liverpool and have three children, one of whom has passed away, and one grandchild.