Grab your bucket and spade - Britain's newest sandy beach opens today.

Allhallows Holiday Park near Rochester plays host to the quarter of a mile of sandy beach - which also holds the honour of being the closest one to London.

The beach, on the Thames estuary, used to be a popular attraction for locals and visitors alike more than two decades ago.

But it became overgrown with weeds and the tide covered much of the sand with shingle and rocks.

A mammoth operation was launched with the parish council, and diggers were brought in to clear away 60 tons of rubble and debris.

It is now open to the public.

Richard Bradford, general manager of Allhallows Holiday Park, said: "It's a wonderful stretch of beach.

"I saw some pictures of how it used to look 20 or 30 years ago when it was very popular with local residents and holidaymakers, and thought it would be great to re-create that and restore the sandy beach.

"Already it's been very popular with families going there to make sandcastles and enjoy the spring sunshine.

"It's another amenity for people to enjoy and it's great to see it being used again."

• Have you got some old pictures of the beach in its heydey? Send them in to multimediadesk@thekmgroupor add your memories below.