Monument record MBC45011 - A Second World War roadside ammunition dump, Lake 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 along the N side of the road leading W out of Steeple Claydon village opposite Lake Farm and centred at SP 68048 26575, the ammunition storage area comprises 10 rectangular buildings, each about 5 x 3 metres and laid out with long sides parallel with the road, extending over about 150 metres. 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 and 1947, but all have been demolished by 1959, though were likely dismantled in the late 1940s or early 1950s (1-6).