ALMOST £3,500 has been handed out to groups in West Oxfordshire to help them commemorate the Great War.

To mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War, West Oxfordshire District Council gave communities to apply for up to £500 of funding.

The 2120 (Witney) Squadron Air Training Corps will use its grant to clean and tidy war graves and lay wreaths in memory of the fallen in Witney and surrounding villages. The team of 30 Air Cadets, between the ages of 13 and 20, will start the project next month.

Also receiving £500 from the council was a project to restore a First World War plaque on Asthall Leigh Memorial Hall; for 33 memorial trees each representing a local person who lost their life, to be planted by Brize Norton Parish Council and Freeland Parish Council; and a metal poppy to be displayed by Salford Parish Council.

Black Bourton Parish Council and Enstone Parish Council were given £375 each to install memorial benches; the Chipping Norton branch of the Royal British Legion got £300 to install a commemorative plaque; the North Leigh History Group received £100 to set up an exhibition; and Witney Radio was handed £300 to create a broadcast series about the war.

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