Monument record MBC44810 - A Second World War roadside ammunition dump, Bycell Farm.

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 Bycell Road about 275 metres SE of Bycell Farm and centred at SP 69734 36621, the ammunition storage area comprises 5 rectangular buildings, 4 about 5 x 3 metres and 1 about 10 x 5 metres, all laid out with long sides parallel with the road over about 140 metres. 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 local roads before D-Day. The munitions storage hutments are present on aerial photographs taken in 1946, but all have been demolished by 1967 (1-6).