Monument record MBC44802 - A Second World War roadside ammunition dump, Cherrytree Plantation.

A Second World War roadside ammunition dump is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located on the west side of Stowe Castle Road opposite Cherrytree Plantation and centred at SP 68556 38702, the ammunition storage area comprises 2 adjacent rectangular buildings, each about 5 x 3 metres and laid out with long sides perpendicular to the road. These portable corrugated iron shelters, or hutments, were usually camouflaged and covered stacks of artillery or small arms ammunition. Roadside storage not only made the ammunition easily accessible but dispersed the risk of a large loss of munitions in one event as a result of a German air raid. A contemporary account of a schoolboy at Stowe School recalls that there were stores of ammunition along the small roads before D-Day. The munitions storage hutments are present on aerial photographs taken in 1946, but all have been demolished by 1967 (1-5).