Monument record MBC44812 - A Second World War roadside ammunition dump, Akeley Road.

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 north side of Akeley Road about 450 metres SW of Bycell Farm and centred at SP 69167 36488, the ammunition storage area comprises 10 rectangular buildings, each about 5 x 3 metres, all laid out in pairs with long sides perpendicular to the road, each pair spaced between 9-10 metres apart over about 75 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).