The transfer of repatriations of fallen troops to a new RAF base in Oxfordshire is due to be marked with an official handover ceremony.

After four years, ceremonies will return to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Thursday. They were moved to RAF Lyneham in April 2007 when Brize Norton was closed for runway repairs.

On Wednesday night a sunset ceremony marked the end of repatriations through Wootton Bassett when the Union flag on the high street was taken down.

On August 18 the town fell silent for the 167th and final time when the body of Lieutenant Daniel Clack, 24, of 1st Battalion The Rifles, was brought back to UK soil.

The Union flag was blessed and folded before being laid overnight on the altar of St Bartholomew's Church. It was then taken to Oxfordshire, where it will be handed over by the mayor of Wootton Bassett to the chairman of Brize Norton Parish Council and the mayor of Carterton.

A purpose-built repatriation centre and memorial garden form part of new arrangements at Brize Norton for fallen troops' return to the UK.

Corteges will leave the base via the newly-restored Britannia Gate, and will pass a memorial garden created by Oxfordshire County Council, West Oxfordshire District Council, Carterton Town Council, Brize Norton Parish Council and the Royal British Legion.

At today's ceremony, the garden will be officially dedicated by the Bishop of Oxford, The Rt Rev John Pritchard, and the chairman of the Oxfordshire Council of Faith, Bede Gerrard.

The flag will be blessed by the Chaplain to the Royal British Legion, also the Vicar of Carterton and Brize Norton, the Rev Bill Blakey, and presented to the Royal British Legion, who will raise it to the call of a bugle.

The centre at Brize Norton is expected to be used for the first time next week when the body of Royal Marine Sergeant Barry Weston, 40, of 42 Commando, is flown home from Afghanistan. Sgt Weston, known as "Baz", was killed by a roadside bomb on Tuesday as he led a patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province.