TWO Forest villages marked their links with the First World War.

At Clearwell there was a service of commemoration and a flower festival while at Broadwell there was an exhibition.

More than 180 people attended Clearwell's commemoration with young people playing a prominent part.

Eighteen-year-old Will Kemp is the same age as his great-great-grandfather who left his wife and daughter to serve in France, never to return, Millie Tudball, aged 17, reflected on her visit to the battlefields of the Somme.

The children of Clearwell school marched into church waving flags and singing Pack Up Your Troubles – as soldiers did when they left home.

Later the children named each man whose name is on the village memorial, identifying him as a person and where he lived.

Corporal Neiren Butler, who is currently serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, read the citation of Clearwell Victoria Cross winner Francis Miles.

Teenager David Mulford showed some of his research on the war at the exhibition.

The exhibition at Broadwell Memorial Hall attracted many visitors.