BUILDING work is expected to start this summer on a £4m museum in Woodstock, dedicated to the history of the armed forces in Oxfordshire.

The news on the project, being run by the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust at Oxfordshire Museum in Park Street, comes as the its Children and War exhibition is shortlisted for a national award.

The national Museums and Heritage Awards for Excellence has shortlisted the attraction among six in the Temporary or Touring Exhibition category.

Comedian and television presenter Sue Perkins will announce the winners on May 16.

Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust spokesman Hugh Babington Smith said he was delighted the exhibition, curated by historian Julie Summers, was shortlisted.

The ex-Royal Green Jackets soldier added: “It’s lovely to be recognised in this way as we move forward with the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum project. If all goes to plan, building will start in June. There will be a new £3m building in the grounds of the Oxfordshire Museum and it will cost another £1m to fit out the museum. We are still seeking grants and other funding to cover those costs.

“We started out with £500 in the bank in 2000 and now we have enough money to start building.

“We will focus on the history of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars, but we want to tell the story of anyone from the county who has been involved in conflict and, over time, our stores of exhibits will grow.”

Last year, the county council agreed to lease land at its museum to the trust. Building work is expected to take more than 18 months, with access to the new attraction through the museum.

The Soldiers of Oxfordshire’s new exhibition, which opened this weekend at the Park Street museum, has photographs taken in the Afghanistan conflict.

Shooting on the Front Line: One Soldier’s War in Afghanistan features 15 images taken by Major Paul Smyth during his six-month deployment in Helmand Province with 11 Light Brigade, from October 2009.

Some show Afghan children, who Maj Smyth says followed him as if he were the “pied piper”, because of his camera equipment.The exhibition runs until June 3.

In Children and War, visitors have been given an insight into how the children dealt with living during two world wars.

The exhibition features photographs, artefacts, memoirs and toys that show conflict through the eyes of children.

It includes Second World War toys and photographs of evacuees arriving in Chipping Norton in 1939 and runs until August.

* Didcot-based Harwell Drying and Restoration Services has also been shortlisted in the awards in the restoration category, for restoring fire-damaged objects from Dean Heritage Centre in the Forest of Dean.