Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

The Family Home

I am Tom, from Bradley Stoke, just north of Bristol. In 2007, I met a girl at a gig in Bristol, Kirsty, who is now my fiancee. We quickly developed a close relationship and as we did, discovered more about each other. We were both from Bristol - fairly likely considering where we met ! Kirsty told me she was from a reasonably large suburb of Bristol called Horfield. I noted that my mother had been born in Horfield and my grandparents and great-grandparents had lived there - not unremarkable really. She went on to tell me she lived in a road - one of the smallest in the area at roughly 40 houses - called Hottom Gardens. Unbelievably, this was in fact the road my great-grandparents lived in, the road my grandfather was raised in, the road my mother visited every week. A pretty unlikely coincidence. I then asked my mother what number my family had lived at - number 3. I asked Kirsty what number she lived at . . . you guessed it, she lived at number 3 Hottom Gardens - my great-grandparents' home for over 50 years. A mind-boggling coincidence. Futhermore, Kirsty's bedroom had been my grandfather's bedroom in the 1930s and 40s.

Two brothers

In the early 1970s when I worked for the Inland Revenue a form came in saying that a David Brown (not his real name) was staring work ina local business. A few days later another form came in saying that David Brown was staring work with the same company. Both young men had been born on the same day so I told a colleague the company had made a mistake and sent the tax office a duplicate form. My colleague told me this wasn't so. he truth was that a man's wife and mistress gave birth to sons on the same day by the same father (the husband). In a fit of pique the mistress gave her son the same first name the wife gave her boy. Neither boy met each other until their father's funeral, when they were both young men. From that day on they became inseperable, moved in together and always worked for the same company. I know nothing of their subsequent history.

The Family Home

I am Tom, from Bradley Stoke, just north of Bristol. In 2007, I met a girl at a gig in Bristol - Kirsty, who is now my fiancee. We quickly developed a close relationship and as we did, discovered more about each other. We were both from Bristol - fairly likely considering where we met ! Kirsty told me she was from a reasonably large suburb of Bristol called Horfield. I noted that my mother had been born in Horfield and my grandparents and great-grandparents had lived there - not unremarkable really. She went on to tell me she lived in a road - one of the smallest in the area at roughly 40 houses - called Hottom Gardens. Unbelievably, this was in fact the road my great-grandparents lived in, the house my grandfather was raised in. A pretty unlikely coincidence. I then asked my mother what number my family had lived at - number 3. I asked Kirsty . . . she lived at number 3 Hottom Gardens. My great-grandparents house for over 50 years. A mind-boggling coincidence. Futhermore, Kirsty's bedroom had been my grandfather's bedroom. To this day, I can hardly believe this is true; a fantastic coincidence - or maybe fate . . . ?

Long-distance coincidence

My Mum (from the UK) was visiting her brother and sister-in-law in New Zealand. They got chatting about their children, and the sister-in-law remarked on my married surname, Plumptre. Her daughter in Hong Kong had a friend with the same surname. The friend turned out to be my husband's sister.

Re births and deaths

Forgot to mention that my son-in-law Norman who married my daughter Carole-Anne was born 11th May 1952 in Wigan and my daughter Debbie was born 11th May 1961 in Bootle

DVD/TV

One Saturday,2 Months ago, my wife and I watched,on DVD, an episode from' Hammer House of Horror' originally broadcast in the 70s. It was entitled 'The Mark of Satan' and it involved a Mortuary attendant ,new in his job, who becomes obsessed with the number 9. The previous attendant whose name was Holt was similarly cursed by number 9 and had killed himself.<br /> When the DVD ended I switched on the TV to watch 'Match of the Day' and the Norwich teamsheet<br /> highlighted one change to their side which was a player named Holt at Number 9. </p> <p>Richard Davies

lose a bracelet, look for a bracelet, find a bracelet but not same one

Mr wife and I were living in Devon and went to visit my brother and sister-in-law in rural Suffolk during which we went for a walk in the countryside. On our return home my wife discovered she had lost an expensive heavy gold charm bracelet so on the off-chance we 'phoned my sister-in-law to see if she had left it there. My sister-in-law found nothing in the house but said she would retrace our walk just to see. A little while later she 'phone with the good news that she'd found the bracelet and would send it to us by post. The package duly arrived and sure enough it contained a heavy gold charm bracelet. The only problem was it wasn't my wife's.

Cats then baby

I adopted two cats in the mid-1990s. They became children to me as pets often do. I always had an inkling I wouldn't have children until they were gone. I met the man who was to become my husband. By then as I had had to move a few times, the cats had "retired" to live with my parents. One passed away but the other managed to hang on for four more years until the age of 19, when she had to be put down due to ill-health. The month after she passed away, in the next 'monthly cycle,' if you like, I fell pregnant at the age of 41 and gave birth to my son 9 months later.

Birth and death

My sister was born 1 March 1929 in Bootle and died 22 February 1969 in Walton Hospital. My stepmother was born 1 March 1912 in Bootle and died 22 February 1952 in Walton Hospital. They were only related by marriage but I think it is a strange coincidence. My sister Peg was born 24 April 1924 in Bootle and I was born 24 April 1934 also in Bootle. My sister Sheila was Born 17 March 1937 in Bootle and her son Stephen was born 17 March 1964 also in Bootle Mary

Mother and Daughter

being born on my mother's birthday is coincidence enough but, after she had died, my sister and I decided to take her ashes from London to Northumberland to be interred with her parents, pretty sure this is what she would have wanted, but one never knows. On arrival in the small town on the way to cemetary, we called into an ASDA store and I noticed the name of the lady paying in front of me was the same as my mother's first husband - BUGLASS (an unusual name) - whom my mother had married at the outset of WWII and divorced at the end, never to hear from him. The lady was indeed the grand-daugther of my mother's first husband. Then, we parked at a beach near the house where my mother was born and the only other car had a number plate which read RAY (my mother's surname). Then we visited a cousin who excused herself because she was looking after a dog that dog - the dog's name was Lilly (my mother's christian name). these coincidences told us we WERE indeed doing the right thing but we dread to think what would have happened if we were doing the WRONG thing in taking her ashes home.

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