Londonderry typewriter museum gets VIP Translink treatment

Jenni Doherty and volunteers pictured with their typewriters before boarding the Translink bus

A Translink bus and an army of volunteers has helped to move a collection of about 140 typewriters to their new home in Londonderry.

The typewriter collection at Little Acorns Bookstore has proven a popular addition since it started in 2011.

Owner Jenni Doherty said she needed some help moving the vast collection to their new home in Great James Street.

"Some people collect shoes, some people collect cars, but for me, I collect typewriters," Ms Doherty said.

"I actually didn't realise how many I had until I counted them all up," she told BBC Radio Foyle's Mark Patterson Show.

Jenni Doherty thanked volunteers and Translink for their time transporting the typewriters

Ms Doherty estimates the collection in their old location housed about 135 typewriters, not counting the ones she had to store at home due to a lack of space.

The independent bookstore owner received her very first typewriter at the age of seven as a Christmas present, and has been an avid collector ever since.

The typewriter enthusiast said her collection has grown and grown over the years, mainly thanks to kind donations from people in the north west.

"I have had people simply donate to the collection over the years because they find an old typewriter in the attic and don't know what to do with them," she said.

"I've even had some people even come in with them and swapped them for some books."

The collection has taken pride of place in the bookstore since 2011

Some prized items in the collection include a typewriter used by journalists at the Londonderry Sentinel and one used by the Field Day Theatre Group started by Brian Friel and actor Stephen Rea in the 1980s.

Other typewriters, which Ms Doherty said are of great rarity, are the ones with Irish language script - which she said takes pride of place in the collection.

These typewriters were donated by Irish Language children's author Myra Zeph, whgich belonged to her late father, Roger Blaney.

Tom Hanks has won two Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump and is an avid vintage typewriter collector

Ms Doherty said that she is hoping to invite Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Tom Hanks to the typewriter museum in their new location in the near future.

Mr Hanks, as well as being a Hollywood A-lister, also boasts a massive collection of vintage typewriters, which he has amassed since he began collecting in the 1970s.

He said he is always on the lookout for weird and wonderful varieties of typewriters.

• Typewriter artist 'blown away' by Tom Hanks reply

Hanks previously published a book of short stories inspired by his personal collection of vintage typewriters.

The typewriters were carefully placed on the bus seats and whisked away to the new bookstore location

Translink supplied a bus for volunteers on Friday afternoon to place the typewriters on the seats and let them be whisked away safely to the new bookstore location.

Ms Doherty said some volunteers even had the honour of placing the very typewriter that they previously donated to the collection on the bus.

She thanked Translink for their huge help in making the event so successful and also said she is indebted to the vast amount of volunteers who turned up, describing them as her "type of people".