Elstree group to put photos of the golden days of film industry on its website for us all to enjoy.

When Marjie Morris moved from the north east to Borehamwood in 1953 - or Britain's Hollywood as it was then known - it was a dream come true, for she had grown up idolising the glamourous film stars of that classic era.

As a teenager in wartime Stockton-on-Tees, she had built up an impressive collection of dozens of signed photographs of filmstars such as Lauren Bacall, Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons.

And during the Sixties, she went on to rub shoulders with stars such as Sean Connery and Honor Blackman after her husband became a film set construction manager.

Mrs Morris's treasured memories recently came flooding back when she came across a book of more signed photographs which belonged to one of her neighbours, Dorothy Razzell, who died in April aged 89.

One of the photographs shows Mrs Razzell, who worked making tea at the studios, sheltering from the sun under a newspaper as glamourous Patti Morgan walks past during the filming of Idol of Paris at the MGM studios in Elstree Way in 1948.

Now those photographs have been copied and preserved for future generations by Elstree Film & Television Heritage Group.

Mrs Morris, 79, of Hornbeam Close, was amazed that her late neighbour had managed to scoop photographs including Liz Taylor, Richard Todd and Cesar Romero: "I don't know how she managed to do this," she said.

Mrs Razzell's niece, Liz Roubinas, explained that her aunt worked making tea at the MGM studios.

"She was ever so proud of those photographs," she said. She got talking to Mrs Morris at her aunt's funeral and offered to lend her the photographs because of their shared interest.

Mrs Morris's love of the old films stemmed from working as an usherette in her local cinema as a teenager, where she used to see films over and over again. "I used to live on that screen," she said. "It was always such a dream to me, I thought it was real." Her favourite film was Casablanca, and she idolised Cary Grant.

She regularly wrote to Culver City studios in California asking for signed photographs -which is where most of her collection came from.

"I did have some from Elstree," she said, "but in those days, the American films were always the best. That's why I fell in love with all the American film stars."

"If I had been put on a quiz show from 1940 to 1953, I could have answered anything about films. I used to know them all by memory."

In the mid-Fifties, her husband became the assistant master carpenter at MGM studios in Borehamwood. He went freelance in the early Sixties and subsequently travelled the world with his wife to work on films.

"I was really part of it," said Mrs Morris. She travelled to Spain for the filming of Dr Zhivago, starring Omar Sharif, and the Western Shalako, starring Sean Connery.

In recent years, she featured in a historical documentary about the opening of the Elstree Studios in the 1920s, but is no longer a keen cinema-goer.

"I don't see many films these days, it's not my scene - it's all noise, bang and crash. The time will come when I don't suppose they'll be wanting film stars, it'll all be mechanical."

She does, however, keep a link with the performing arts through singing as a member of Elstree and Borehamwood Light Operatic Society and Borehamwood Community Choir.

Bob Redman, from Elstree Film & Television Heritage Group, said the photos which belonged to both Mrs Razzell and Mrs Morris would be uploaded onto the group's website in the coming weeks.

He said: "I think Marjorie's story is an excellent example of a member of the community volunteering film material. We can scan it and then put it into our digital archive which we either put up on the website or print out for exhibitions and displays, so that this material is recorded, preserved and shared."

The website can be found at www.elstreescreenheritage.org