Monument record MBC45290 - Second World War military camp, Stockgrove House and Park.

A Second World War military camp with buildings, slit trenches, foxholes and barbed wire entanglements are visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data and were mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located through the grounds of Stockgrove Park and centred at SP 91575 29594, Stockgrove House and Park was used by the War Department throughout the war, with the owner Sir Michael Kroyer-Kielberg KBE and his family moving to live in the Dower House. A former wartime serviceman recounts that on 2nd September 1939, Stockgrove House was taken over by a Territorial Army No. 10 Casualty Clearing Station (CCS), the 1st (1st London) CCS. Following that unit’s departure for overseas service, from 1941 the house and grounds were used by the army commandos for training, with personnel camped in the Park’s woods. Between May and July 1944, the house and grounds were also used by the 81st British General Hospital before deployment on overseas service. At one-point WRNS from nearby Bletchley Park were accommodated in the House. German prisoners of war also worked in the quarries. The wartime military presence is visible as 8 rectilinear military buildings located adjacent Stockgrove House in 2 clusters: one cluster is a linked trio of rectangular buildings centred at SP 91464 29591. Formed into an L-shape, the three buildings remain extant in 2007, but by 2017 have been demolished. Some 100 metres to the E and centred at SP 91569 29601, the second cluster comprises 5 rectangular buildings and two building platforms which appear to have been demolished between 1947 and 1950. One further rectangular building about 21.5 x 6 metres that may have been a wartime military construction is centred at SP 91859 29631 visible within the woodland. The building appears to have remained extant post-war as part of a residence called Christmas Cottage, but between 2007 and 2017 has been demolished to make way for a new building complex called Rammamere House. Across the grounds are visible evidence of military training, with a rectangular barbed wire enclosure 64 x 67.5 metres, with 2 probable gaps or entrances, one on the N facing side and one on the S facing side. The function of this structure is uncertain but it was demolished between 1947 and 1950. Also notable is the scatter of zig-zig and linear slit trenches and 2 possible lines of 12 individual circular foxholes through the grounds. On aerial photographs taken in 2019 and recent remote sensing data, many of these earthwork features appear to remain extant (1-13).