Military records from Oxfordshire's county regiments spanning hundreds of years have been brought together thanks to a £50,000 Lottery grant.

The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust, a military heritage group, has been able to compile an online catalogue of the many military documents and artefacts in the county thanks to money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

War diaries, records of service, field orders and a unique atlas containing plans of the principal battles fought by the British against Napoleon's forces in the 1800s are just some of the sources listed.

It is the first time that the trust, which unites the Oxfordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars), the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and Oxford University Officers' Training Corps, has been able to bring together their collections.

Chairman Brian Hook said: "For the first time, thanks to the Heritage Lottery award, the trustees know exactly what they have in their collections of militaria and documents.

"This is great news for researchers and for anybody who is interested in finding out more about what their ancestors did for their country. Schools with local history projects will find the information very useful."

As well as the catalogue, Oxfordshire County Council is set to publish the first part of a volunteer project to list all those who served with the two county regiments.

Project manager Major Hugh Babington Smith said: "There are 40,000 names on the list, many with details of their final discharge from the Army.

"There are thousands more to come. These names are the direct link between today's Oxfordshire people and their forebears who contributed to this part of British history."

The grant also allowed for conservation work to be done, and a further phase of the project will see the creation of a joint county military museum, bringing together material relating to the Yeomanry and OTC with the Light Infantry collection, which is currently kept at Slade Park Barracks, in Oxford.

For more details of the trust and the online catalogue, see www.sofo.org.uk