Monument record MBC44984 - A Second World War air gunnery and bombing range, Cowley Lodge/Briarhill Farm.

A Second World War air gunnery and bombing range is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in a field opposite Cowley Lodge north of the Gawcott to Calvert road and centred at SP 67293 27621, the bombing range comprises a bombing range tower, adjacent to which is a concrete white-painted pointed directional arrow and three small square markers that probably comprised of reversible reflective signal discs to allow a range of codes to be communicated to incoming aircraft. The range control building is accessed by a 70 metres long linear trackway from the road, with a rectangular nissen-type military building at the roadway entrance on the hedgeline that may have acted as office and/or guardroom/picket post. Some 685 metres to the ESE and centred at SP 67963 27439 a triangular earthwork bank encloses a triangular bombing target structure, with each side about 17 metres long, within which is a further triangular target structure, with each side about 6.7 metres long. Nearby are several circular bomb craters, Visible on aerial photographs in 1946 and 1947, the Air Ministry informed the landowner in March 1947 that the land was no longer required by the RAF. By 1949 the site appears to be unused but remains extant. The white-painted direction arrow and markers are overgrown but just visible, as is the target triangle. By 1959 the site has been partly dismantled: the observation tower remains extant, but the target structures and direction arrow are not visible. The bomb craters remain visible as earthworks. The site remains in this state in 1961, but by 1973 the observation tower, trackway and remaining structures have been demolished, except for the Nissen hut building on the hedgeline. The bomb craters have also been plough-levelled. By 2003 the remaining military hut has been demolished and all evidence of the bombing range has been levelled. On aerial photographs taken in 2018, there is no evidence of the former military range (1-13).