Monument record MBC44853 - A Second World War roadside military depot, Stowe to Water Stratford road.

A Second World War roadside military depot is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located on the NW facing side of the Stowe to Water Stratford road about 250 metres NW of The Lodge and centred at SP 66034 35888, the military depot comprises 4 subrectangular areas that are aligned SW-NE along the road, 2 being about 17 x 13 metres and 2 about 14 x 13 metres, each covered by what appears to be camouflage netting or canvas sheeting and spread over about 80 metres. Adjacent to each depot area are 4 short sections of access trackway perpendicular to the road. This is likely to have been a roadside munitions depot for 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 or accidental explosion. A contemporary account of a schoolboy at Stowe School recalls that there were stores of ammunition along the local roads before D-Day. The military depot is present on aerial photographs taken in 1946 but are not visible on aerial photographs taken in 1961, though they were likely to have been demolished by the mid-1950s (1-4).