Monument record MBC45012 - A Second World War roadside ammunition dump, Lake Farm/Stone Court 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 between Lake Farm and Stone Court Farm and centred at SP 68333 26570, the ammunition storage area comprises 9 rectangular buildings, 6 about 7.5 x 3 metres and 3 about 5 x 3 metres, all laid out with long sides parallel with the road, all extending over about 180 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).