A FOREST family, whose members can trace their ancestry back to 1600, is celebrating the arrival of its newest member.

Five female generations of the Hinton Clarke family gathered at Beryl Hinton’s home in Coleford recently, as the 102-year-old met her great-great-granddaughter Sofia Bull-Clarke, who was born in August this year.

All five families still live in, or have strong connections to, the Forest. Beryl, who was born in 1915, lives in Coleford as does her daughter Kay Clarke.

Kay’s daughter Sue lives with husband Andrew Clarke in Woolaston, which is where son Lewis Clarke works. Nici Bull-Clarke, Lewis Clarke and their baby daughter now live in Newport in south Wales.

Andrew said: “Beryl has lived through two world wars and attended Bells Grammar school in Coleford. She is the daughter of local coal miner Harry Adams and teacher Agnes Wait of Berry Hill, and granddaughter of Joyford coal miner George ‘Tatty’ Adams (1837 to 1916) and Emma Aston Smith, who was born in 1836 and also died when Beryl was a baby in 1916.

 “Beryl’s amazing knowledge of the Forest of Dean extends back through generations of coal miners to her great-grandparents William Adams, a miner from Littledean Hill, and Eunice Morris of Awre. She is also the great-granddaughter of Edward Aston Smith (1809-1886), a miner of Berry Hill, and Jane Prosser (1808-1872) of West Dean. 

“Edward Aston Smith’s parents – and Beryl’s great-great -grandparents – were Jeremiah Smith (1790-1837), a coal miner in Coleford, and Anne Aston (1790-1857) of Newland.

“In fact Beryl can trace her family tree back to the early 1600s in Newland.”

All of which gives baby Sofia a heritage that spans over 400 years of the Forest’s past, much of it spent underground in the area’s many mines.