A well known resident of Tiptree for many years was Joy Laurey, the puppet maker who created Mr Turnip; visitors to the Tiptree museum have an opportunity to actually see Mr Turnip for themselves from 8 October until the end of the year, for free.
Joy Laurey (1924 - 2014) had a studio on Maldon Road in Tiptree where she made her puppets and began her career entertaining the troops during the Second World War. She then worked with television companies, creating and operating puppets in the 1950s. One of her best known puppets was Mr Turnip, designed for a BBC TV show called Whirligig that ran from 1950 to 1956. The show’s presenter was Humphrey Lestocq,and Mr Turnip was voiced by Peter Hawkins, who went on to provide voices for Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, and the Daleks in the early days of Doctor Who. Harry Corbett and Sooty made their debut on the show. Sadly no episodes of Whirligig survive.
Mr Turnip also featured as a comic strip in Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Weekly.
In 1957, Joy went on to make all the puppets for Gerry Andersons’s first foray into TV shows, The Adventures of Twizzle. Joy left Anderson’s film company in 1957, before Anderson moved on to Torchy the Battery Boy and later Thunderbirds.
Joy travelled the world with Mr Turnip attending Puppet Theatre Festivals. She performed at Wilkin & Sons’ Factory Hall in Tiptree, alongside Peter Brough and his famous ventriloquist dummy, Archie Andrews.
After retiring from her TV work, Joy worked with the Occupational Therapy department at Severalls Psychiatric Hospital in Colchester.
Today the Joy Laurey archive is curated by Stuart Woodhead, who has kindly loaned the Jam Museum at Tiptree Mr Turnip himself, alongside the poster of the Laurey show in Wilkln & Sons’ Factory Hall in Tiptree. A blue plaque was put on Joy’s house in Tiptree in 2022, where Priti Patel MP met Stuart and Mr Turnip.
Mr Turnip will be in the museum from 8 October until the New Year. Admission to the Museum, adjacent to the Tiptree Tea Room, is free.
