Plans for a centre for military studies in Oxfordshire have moved closer, thanks to an agreement between county regiments and council leaders.

A meeting between the county council and the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust approved a 'memorandum of understanding' to establish an Oxfordshire Centre for Military Studies.

Since 2000, the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust, representing the county regiments, has been negotiating for a permanent home for its collections which will have to move next year from the Slade Park Barracks in Headington when the site is redeveloped by Oxford City Council.

The county council has submitted a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a £4m grant to double the size of its museum stores at Standlake, near Witney, which would enable staff to house the military collections.

Major Hugh Babington Smith, project officer for the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust, said: "This memorandum helps us to move forward and we will now wait to hear from the lottery fund in September to see if the grant comes through to increase the size of the stores at Standlake.

"This would not be permanently open to the public, but it would provide us with a permanent base to prepare our exhibitions at museums around the county."

The soldiers' trust, a military heritage charity, unites the Oxfordshire Yeomanry, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the Oxford University Officers Training Corps, and other Oxfordshire units including the Field Hospital and the City of Oxford Battery Royal Artillery.

The memorandum follows the project to create electronic catalogues of the collections, part-funded with £50,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which can now be searched online at the council's heritage search website.

A volunteer contribution to this was the provision of 40,000 names of former soldiers. This will shortly be expanded to nearly 80,000.

Brigadier Ian Inshaw, the chairman of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire, said: "Warfare is not just about soldiers fighting.

"Those at home are affected too.

"Our aim is to help the public, schools and researchers to find information about the Oxfordshire regiments, those who served in them and how home life was affected."