Britain’s oldest Tweeter has died in her sleep at the age of 104, staff at her care home have said. Ivy Bean, from Bradford, acquired over 56,000 followers on the popular micro-blogging service. Pat Wright, manager of Hillside Manor where Mrs Bean lived, broke the news on her Twitter feed.

Mrs Bean joined the site in 2008, one year after she registered on Facebook. She soon attracted attention for being the oldest “tweeter”.

Her celebrity followers included singer Peter Andre, Chris Evans and ex-prime minister’s wife Sarah Brown.

“You could not dislike Ivy,” said Mrs Wright.

“She didn’t have a bad word to say about anybody. She was a real lady, an inspiration.”

Mr Andre, who met Mrs Bean in September 2009, said he was “saddened to hear that Ivy has passed away” and offered his condolences to her family.

“She was a lovely woman who had a brilliant sense of humour and we have stayed in touch since we met.”

Media gaze

Mrs Bean accessed social networks using a computer given to the home by the local social services authority in 2007. Although the machine was originally intended for staff training purposes, staff decided to open it up to residents, said Mrs Wright.

Soon after joining Facebook in 2007, Mrs Bean was soon receiving 15-16,000 messages a day. She was introduced to Twitter one year later.

Her tweets were about her daily life and her friends.

Her last one on 6 July read: “going to have my lunch now will be back later”. Mrs Wright had looked after her Twitter feed while she was in hospital, after being taken ill in June.

Mrs Bean enjoyed the publicity that surrounded her, she said. “She loved every minute of it. The media was a big part of her life. She would not have expected to go quietly.”