Published on Tuesday, 24 December 2024 at 10:48:15 AM
Welcome to this Christmas Eve edition of #TimeWarpTuesday. As we take time out with our families and friends, give gifts, prepare big feasts and listen to those most beloved ‘Dad Jokes’ (every family has one comedian), whilst keeping cool by the pool and turning the prawns on the barbie, we hope you get to create beautiful memories. Whatever you do, don’t forget to cherish the moments, the smiles, the laughs and the hugs.
Here are some Christmas snaps of the Turner and Farley Families’ Christmas over the years. Beth and Lois Turner, lived with their parents George and Adelaide Turner, in a brick and tile house on Shepperton Road, Victoria Park, where they moved in March 1926 when Lois was about six months old, and Beth not born till later that year. We have a few lovely photos of part of the family’s celebrations, in an early picture dated around 1928/9, Beth and Lois are admiring their special Christmas cakes (raised on cake stands), some of their gifts of dolls tea sets and miniature kitchen hutches can be seen. In another image, dated perhaps the next year, sisters, Lois and Beth Turner happily pose with their Christmas gifts next to the tank stand in their back yard at 83 (now 183) Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. The girls are wearing special Christmas dresses and have their hair curled and beribboned for the special day. In another image c. 1930s the Turner Family with Grandma James poses on the front steps of their home at 83 Shepperton Road, with the specially decorated Christmas cake featuring in the centre, at George Turner’s feet, resting prettily on a pedestalled cake stand.
Fast forward a few years and Lois Turner is married and now Lois Farley. In this photo she is celebrating Christmas with her children around the natural pine Christmas tree, from a local source! In the days when people had real trees for Christmas, we see a joyful scene of sisters, Nanette pushing a dolls pram and Judith riding her new bicycle, whilst Lois raises a baby Phillip in her arms and smiles into his chubby cheeked face. Tinsel is blowing in the breeze and gifts and joy shines forth from the scene. Many handmade gifts can be seen, with Cyril having learnt woodwork so that he could craft gifts for his family. In this photograph two dolls’ houses stand proudly on either side of the tree, made with love by a father for his precious girls. Special dresses even hang from coat hangers in the tree too. It is presumed that ‘Dad’, Cyril Farley, captured this timeless image of a Victoria Park family Christmas tradition, a fitting testimony to a family and love.
Don’t forget if you have stories or photos to share that document life in Victoria Park and its suburbs, especially of Christmas celebrations as we don’t have many, please get in touch with us here at the Library. We’d love to hear from you and to be able to document more local Christmas traditions.
May you our reader experience the true joy of Christmas, and we look forward to sharing more history with you in the New Year.
#LoveVicPark #MerryChristmas
PH00236-06 Beth and Lois Turner admiring their special Christmas cakes and presents, circa 1929.
Courtesy of Roger Farley. Local History Collection, Town of Victoria Park Library Service.
PH00211-07 Sisters, Lois and Beth Turner at Christmas, circa 1930s.
Courtesy of Roger Farley. Local History Collection, Town of Victoria Park Library.
PH00211-09 - Turner Family Christmas circa 1930.
Courtesy of Roger Farley. Local History Collection, Town of Victoria Park Library.
PH00210-14 A Farley Family Christmas in the backyard of 120 Basinghall Street, East Victoria Park, circa 1953.
Courtesy of Roger Farley. Local History Collection, Town of Victoria Park Library Service.
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