A picture archive charting the golden age of the silver screen has been unearthed after more than half a century.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Doris Harrison, of King Edward Avenue, Worthing, drew stunning pencil pictures of the movie stars of the day.

Since then, the collection has been left almost undisturbed in an album.

But now it has been dusted off to form part of an exhibition marking the Millennium at Worthing Baptist Church, Christchurch Road.

Doris, 79, a former nurse at Robertsbridge TB sanatorium, cried with delight when she saw her drawings of famous screen idols such as Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Bing Crosby, Barbara Stanwyck, Hedy Lamarr and Marlene Dietrich displayed.

She was inspired to commit the images of Hollywood's brightest stars of the day to paper while she was living with her family in Lower Willingdon, near Eastbourne, in 1944 and 1945.

Doris said: "In those days there wasn't much entertainment and I used to enjoy doing them.

"A friend gave me a beautiful photograph album of all the film stars. They were so lovely I thought I must draw them.

"I liked drawing Greta Garbo the best. She was my favourite. Her acting was very, very good.

"She was a wonderful film star and she had such lovely hair and eyes, which made her great to draw.

"They have been in a book on a shelf since the war. I fetched them out occasionally to show people.

"Then I heard that the Baptist Church was having a festival and thought to myself that maybe they would like them.

"I was very glad of the chance for everyone to have a look at them.

"It was quite overwhelming to see them displayed."

Gerald Thompson, organiser of the Millennium Flower Festival and Exhibition, said the drawings had aroused a lot of interest.

He said: "We asked members of the church if they had any memorabilia that could be displayed.

"The minister, Samuel Reading, thought the drawings were wonderful. Doris was thrilled to bits to see them displayed for the first time."

Doris is now hoping to pass on the drawings and wondered whether the Edwardian Dome cinema might be interested in having them.

The exhibition also included a "timeline" charting the history of England over the past 1,000 years, which took Don and Joyce Holland 18 months to compile.