COMMUNITIES across the Forest of Dean will be turning out en-masse for Armistice Day parades in towns and villages on Sunday to mark the end of the First World War.

Although the format has remained unchanged throughout the years, the annual ritual has lost nothing of its emotional power and continues to attract large and respectful crowds.

Originally the parades paid tribute to the British servicemen who died for their country during the First and then Second World Wars and whose names are enshrined on local war memorials.

The formal ceremony normally held at 11am on November 11, marks the day in 1918 when the First World War officially came to an end after four years of the most horrific and senseless carnage the World had ever witnessed.

The art department of Forest High School in Cinderford have been holding an after school club which enables students to create a fitting tribute that initially took its inspiration from the poppy display at the tower of London to mark the centenary of the beginning of World War One.