Nigh on impossible to find and overgrown with ivy, a cemetery on the edge of Canterbury city centre has almost been consigned to the history books.

Located off Whitstable Road, the burial ground - which is home to more than 150 graves - is one of the city's best kept secrets.

Thousands pass by the old graveyard every day, yet almost everyone is unaware of its existence.

The site - exclusively for Jewish burials - is steeped in history, with the first grave believed to have been dug in the 1760s and the most recent in 1930.

It is one of the county's largest Jewish cemeteries, and up until the second half of last century, it was the only one of its kind in east Kent.

Gravestone inscriptions are in either Hebrew or English, with names from across Kent, southern cities including Plymouth, and even European destinations such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

After serving as a key cemetery for two centuries, its usage started to wane as the city's Jewish community dwindled.

It fell into a state of disrepair, attracted vandalism and had goats and sheep tethered there to eat the grass.

At the turn of the millennium the near-forgotten site benefited from a much-needed cash boost of £42,000.

The heritage lottery funding helped to repair the perimeter wall, bring the site back into public use and install signage.

However, the cemetery - which is managed by Canterbury City Council - remains without signed directions and cannot be visited without pre-arranging a trip.

Jim Hampshire, the long-time owner of Canterbury Rock record store in Whitstable Road, has been the designated key keeper of the graveyard for the past 20 years.

The 73-year-old hands out the key to those who wish to explore or pay their respects to the buried.

But Mr Hampshire says a visitor failed to return the key about two years ago.

"I've not been able to let anyone in since 2020," he said.

"There's been a lot of interest over the years, and not just from the Jewish community.

"There are people who are just interested in the history of Canterbury and want to have a look around.

"I've tried to tell the council and get a new key but I just got to a dead end basically.

"I must have spoken to four different departments, and they didn't even know it existed.

"It's sad as I haven't got a key to give out, so it's difficult telling people that they sadly can't go in.

"I've had a number of people ask this year."

The city council says people can still visit the graveyard, and states that upkeep is still carried out.

Getting in, however, has proved difficult for the Jewish community.

Louise Hart says the struggles she recently faced were upsetting.

"It's really distressing that people turn up to visit graves at the traditional time of Yom Kippur, and find they cannot get into the cemetery," she said.

"I have struggled to find anyone at the council who knows anything about it, which is shocking given the homage to Canterbury Jewry which is found elsewhere in the city.

"I plead with someone at the council to open the gates to this important part of the Canterbury community."

The city council says the burial site is "of significant importance" to the Jewish community, and access can be arranged in advance.

Spokesman Rob Davies said: "This is a closed cemetery that is not open for day to day visits, but we do organise arranged access with groups, both local and from further afield, so that people can go into the cemetery to pay their respects and learn more about this special site.

"The cemetery is of significant importance to the Jewish community, and in particular we arrange visits for various synagogues across the year, especially from the Hasidic/Orthodox Jewish community from Stamford Hill in London."

Despite being just yards from a main city route, the unmarked cemetery is impossible to find without prior knowledge of where to look.

To find the graveyard, visitors must head up from St Dunstan's, past the church and over the mini roundabout. Going past the Forty Acres Road junction and the Canterbury Rock store, access to the site is about 30 metres on.

Hidden between house numbers 26 and 28, the short pathway leading to the gated entrance is up a driveway.

The impressive-looking cemetery entrance, with a Star of David etched into the stone, is then on the right in the midst of overgrown plants and ivy.

Speaking back when the site was awarded its lottery funding, Prof Dan Cohn-Sherbok - a former lecturer in Jewish Studies at the University of Kent - said: "Canterbury was a significant provincial community, with 200 Jews in the Westgate area in the 18th century.

"It was also a regional centre for east Kent."

The cemetery is the final resting place of Canterbury-born explorer Nathaniel Isaacs, who is regarded as one of the founders of Natal, a province in South Africa.

A synagogue was built nearby but was demolished to make way for the railway. A replacement was built in King Street, in the city centre, in Egyptian-style by Canterbury architect Hezekiah Marshall.

It was opened in 1848, before being acquired by the King's School in the following century.

It is no longer an operating synagogue, and is now used by the public school for music lessons and small concerts.

Dating back to 1160, Canterbury has one of the oldest Jewish communities in England but the numbers are now very small. It means there is no Jewish place of worship in the city.

For those wanting to explore a hidden part of Canterbury, the Whitstable Road graveyard evokes memories of centuries gone by - the difficulty is just getting in...

*Information partly gathered from jtrails.org.uk