Inside the house that was trapped in time: Electric fires, retro food tins and snaps of friends lost in the war give a glimpse into lives of unmarried sisters who shared a bedroom for 27 years

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Two single beds side by side, canes hanging from coat hooks and retro British food tins on a gingham-covered countertop - these are the poignant images that capture the lives of two elderly sisters in their family home.

Jean and Joy Taylor were born in the house in Ryde, Isle of Wight, in 1916 and 1922, never married and even shared a bedroom in their family home for 27 years until Jean's death in 2008.

Now their quiet, old fashioned life together has been documented by a photographer Zoe Barker, with her picture series, The House Of Two Sisters.

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The sisters' guest room is decorated with pink candlewick bedspreads, an electric fire and family pictures on the mantelpiece. Jean's picture is in the centre, to the right is their brother Jim in his Royal Artillery Uniform

The new owners have kept the enamelled pots and pans and other vintage pieces of kitchenware and continue to use a 'cool cupbord' with perforated metal door and sides for storing cheese, butter and eggs

Jean Taylor (left) was born, lived and died in her home in Ryde, Isle of Wight; after the loss of her sister in 2008, Joy, now 99, (right) sold the house in 2013 to move into a care home

Barker's pictures are as much a document of the sisters' lives together and of a glimpse of a vanishing Britain.

Her images record an immaculately kept house with vintage features such as antimacassars on the armchairs, tins of treacle in the kitchen, a dressing table and highly-patterned carpets.

There are no computers cluttering up surfaces, or plugs, wires and cables wending around furniture and only a few black and white photographs decorate on the walls.

The women were born into a well-known local family, which originally set up a successful coaching business in the town in the 1840s.

They also had two brothers James and John. 

Barker said: 'Very much a family home in the early days, the sisters shared the house with their mother and their Aunt Edie until both mother and aunt passed away. This was Jean's home all her life.'

Aged 23 and 17 respectively when the Second World War broke out, the Taylor sisters came of age in an era of thrift, rationing and self-sacrifice. And their wartime experiences are evident throughout the house.

The dressing table in the twin bedroom that Jean and Joy shared. Their beds are seen reflected in the mirror

The new owners have kept the old Electrolux hoover along with the carpet that remains in this room

Jean and Joy shared a bedroom from the 1950s until Jean's death. The picture on the wall is of their family friend and Spitfire pilot George Gribble who was never found after bailing out over the sea near Dunkirk

Both of their brothers survived the war and there is a picture of James, who served in North Africa and Italy while John fought in the jungles of Burma, on the guest bedroom mantelpiece. 

In their neat, almost spartan, room is a black and white photo of their family friend and Spitfire pilot George Gribble who victory-rolled over the house whenever he flew over the island. 

On 4 June, 1941, he was seen to bail out over the sea near Dunkirk but was never found.

The smaller photograph in the corner of the same frame is Bill Tudhope, a bomber pilot who was engaged to one of their cousins. He failed to return from a bombing mission over Germany in 1940. 

Barker said: 'In 1957 Joy left to live in London, though returned to the house almost every weekend. On retiring in 1981 she returned to live with her sister and they remained there together until Jean's death. 

'Neither of them ever married. Despite being a large house the sisters shared a bedroom right up until Jean passed away.' 

These plastic flowers were given to the sisters by the grandmother of the woman who delivered their lunches in the last two years of Jean's life. Niece Gill remembers how impractical these armchair 'tables' were andmugs of tea would slip off unless held on to tightly

Joy Taylor sold the house in 2013 but her coat still hangs on the coat rack along with the sisters' canes (left); the women hung their Sunday best dresses on the back of the bedroom door (right). Their niece Gill, who says her aunts were always smart dressers, remembers Jean wearing this two-piece on warm summer days

The Isle of Wight-based photographer was asked to take her camera around the house by the new owners after Joy - the last of the Taylor family in Ryde - sold her house in 2013 to move into a care home.

She said: 'The new owners are lovely - a middle-aged couple with a teenage daughter. They are all massive appreciators of old things so it couldn't be in better hands.

'They've kept a lot of the sisters' furniture and objects, selected from the things that the sisters' family didn't want, many of which are currently in storage, but they plan to display them around the house once the decorating is completed.

'They invited me to come and document the house precisely because they appreciated it all so much - they really wanted a record of how it was. I presented them with an album of photographs at the end of the project.'

The pictures took first place in the Documentary Series Category at the British Life Photography Awards this month. 

The new owners of the house have kept this Fowler's Treacle tin and many other old containers including over-the-counter medicines and salves, with a view to displaying them in the house in future

The sisters had an identical much-loved chair and even Joy isn't sure whether this one was hers or Jean's

Barker documented the interior before it was renovated. She said: 'Little had changed for many years and the house was full of wonderfully dated features.

But the house won't be entirely transformed.

'They're keeping the essentials of the house the same - lots of paint required and a few new curtains and carpets, but pretty minimal really as they want the house to retain its wonderful character,' she said.

'For example, keeping the woodchip wallpaper, just giving it a lick of paint, and holding on to some of those amazingly dated carpets. Even the old hoover has been kept as it's working perfectly.

'The biggest change is the kitchen - it was absolutely tiny, a galley kitchen really: the kitchen pans photograph was only just about doable with a wide angle lens and the camera right against the opposite wall. So the old sitting room is now a wonderfully spacious kitchen with window out on to the garden.'

The rug was made by Aunt Edie's long-term boyfriend 'Uncle Bert'. The pair stepped out every Wednesday afternoon until he passed away but they never married. The blue china dog also belonged to Aunt Edie