7:49pm Sunday 18th April 2010
By Jen Rivett
A MUSEUM dedicated to soldiers in the county has now put forward plans for its new £3m home.
Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust’s current base in Hensington Road, Woodstock, is too small to be open to visitors on a regular basis.
The trust wants to build a new centre in the garden of the Oxfordshire Museum, in Park Street.
It would be open to the public at the same time as the main museum.
This week a planning application was submitted to Oxfordshire County Council.
Project manager Major Hugh Babington Smith said: “At the moment, we’re not set up as a museum.
“We can take business by appointment but we can’t take walk-in visitors.
“We’re not set up as the facilities are not there but this will allow us to change that.”
He added: “This will keep the memory of what soldiers have sacrificed going.
“We are all aware of that at the moment, but this museum will not just be the regimental museum, it is for the history of conflicts in Oxfordshire.
“In this nice peaceful existence we live in today, this will remind ourselves that there’s a reason to have armed forces to keep our security and our freedoms.”
The trust holds 4,000 war-related items, charting conflicts from the bronze age to present day.
Among these are medals, tins of tobacco, cigarettes and chocolates given to soldiers in the First World War, weapons, parts of uniforms and helmets.
An archive also holds up to 8,000 entries, which includes letters and diaries.
Brigadier Ian Inshaw, chairman of the trust, said: “Our collections have been too difficult for the public to find for too long.
“The project to make them more accessible started in 2000 and after some tough times we are delighted we’ve reached the landmark of submitting a planning application.”
The new building will be 1,300sqm, with three galleries, two walkways containing displays and a large meeting room.
Brig Inshaw added: “We will also have facilities for our volunteers to look after our collections and archives. At last they will be properly available to the public.”
The site is owned by the county council, and the trust will pay a peppercorn rent.
Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust will pay for the building work and for the upkeep of the museum.
Last year, £1.45m was anonymously donated to the trust, along with a loan so that it could start building work before raising the remainder of the £3m needed.
It will apply to grant-giving organisations to reach its fundraising target.
A further £300,000 must also be found to fit out the new building.
If plans are approved, work will start this summer and the museum should open to the public in early 2012.
Don Deaney, welfare officer at Witney’s Royal British Legion, welcomed the news.
He said: “It sounds like an excellent thing.
“Lots of people want to read up on information going back many, many years.”
The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust was formed in 2000 and its trustees are drawn from representatives of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the Oxfordshire Yeomanry, the Oxford University Officer Training Corps and the Royal Air Force.
It holds regimental collections from all conflicts.
To volunteer or to visit the museum, visit sofo.org.uk
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