Monument record MBC43474 - A Second World War military depot

A Second World War military depot is visible on historic aerial photographs as buildings and structures and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located on Stewkley Road adjacent the Red Lion public house and centred at SP 87604 27048, it is believed that the first phase of Hollingdon Depot was constructed at the start of the war by a local building company from Leighton Buzzard owned by the Willis family. The Willis building company was then used to make small alterations, extensions and new works on the Depot site over the course of the war.

Hollingdon Depot appears to have served several functions as the war progressed: as a Buffer Food Store for evacuees from the London Blitz: as a War Dept army food storage and distribution depot. In addition, some of the barns and sheds at adjacent Grove Farm were also requisitioned for wartime food storage, with the barn doors having the quantity and descriptions of contents stored within. The Depot was also utilised for servicing military vehicles from local units. A service/inspection pit was constructed to enable the underside of the vehicles to be accessed. It is possible that the buildings were also taken over by nearby RAF Wing airbase for the maintenance of Wellington bomber engines.

The main feature of this site is a large building about 45 metres square. Scattered around this building are 17 rectangular buildings of various sizes and a mix of Nissen corrugated type huts and pitched roofs, along with an earth-buried air raid shelter to the west of the main building. The commanding officer at the site occupied the bungalow at the SW corner of the depot site. Soil from the levelling of the Depot was mounded along the northern boundary and military huts were built on the top which was used as offices and troop accommodation. Still extant in 1947, the air raid shelter appears to have been demolished by 1949. The main building remains extant in 2019, but all the remaining buildings and structures have been demolished (1-9).