Borehamwood's Cock & Hen Club was an instant hit with movie stars and film crews, who enjoyed its relaxed attitude to licensing laws.

Tom Parsons, who was a member for around ten years, remembers that the club, in Shenley Road, was opened in around 1938, by the former production manager and occasional actor Frederick Reynolds.

Most of Mr Parsons' family worked in the film industry, and he joined the club in 1940. But within a few days he was called up by the army, to fight in World War Two.

In 1945 or 1946, Mr Parsons came back to Borehamwood, and started visiting the club on a regular basis.

He had a good, well-paid job working in the fully-fashioned stocking department of the Keystone factory, and enjoyed the late parties at The Cock & Hen Club.

"I carried on going there for about four or five years. I became very good friends with Fred Reynolds, he was always very friendly and outgoing. He was in his late 30s or early 40s, and he was always immaculately dressed, with a small moustache.

"The club was great fun, and its clientele were mostly from the studios film people.

"There was always a lively party going on after the rest of the pubs had closed, which was terribly illegal. We used to go in, put the lock on the door and carry on drinking. It was the sort of place a nice girl wouldn't go into."

The club's location, across the road from Elstree Studios, then called British International Pictures, meant it was never short of glamorous, interesting people.

But in 1951 or 1952, when Mr Reynolds was offered a business opportunity in Jersey, he sold the club and moved on.

Mr Parsons carried on living in Borehamwood until 1985, when he moved to Hol Beach in Lincolnshire. He still keeps up to date with events in the town through a friend, who sends him cuttings from the Borehamwood & Elstree Times.