Monument record MBC45003 - A Second World War roadside ammunition dump, College 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 both sides of the Gawcott to Calvert road about 330 metres NE of College Farm and centred at SP 67240 29721, the ammunition storage area comprises 12 rectangular buildings, each about 5 x 3 metres spread out over 94 metres. They are laid out in 5 pairs with long sides perpendicular to the W side of the road and 1 pair with long sides parallel with the E side of the road. These portable corrugated iron shelters, or hutments, were usually camouflaged and covered stacks of artillery or small arms ammunition. A local eyewitness recalls stockpiles of ammunition in the area that were kept by the roadside in small Nissen-type huts with tarpaulins on the ends. Roadside storage not only made the ammunition easily accessible but dispersed the risk of a large loss of munitions in the event of an explosion, whether accidental or the result of a German air raid. The munitions storage hutments are visible on aerial photographs taken in 1946, but all have been demolished by 1961, though were probably dismantled in the late 1940s or early 1950s (1-6).