There's no denying that 2022 was a topsy-turvy 12 months - there has, it is fair to say, been rarely a dull moment.

And over the year, we at KentOnline have served you up a diet of hard news, in-depth features and the more quirky side of life. But which have been our most read stories of the year? You're about to find out...

15. M2 reopened after body found

A tragic case brought chaos to the M2 motorway in May - which probably explains the 119,519 page views the story received.

Both carriageways were closed between junctions two and three for Chatham and Strood after police became concerned for the welfare of a man.

The road was closed in the early hours and not fully reopened until noon.

A body was found with officers confirming the death was not being treated as suspicious.

14. Snow in Kent: Ice warning for drivers and disruption on rail services

When a few flakes of the white stuff fall from the skies, widespread disruption to the county seems inevitable.

Snow in mid-December may have put many in the festive spirit, but it also caused chaos on the roads, trains cancelled and schools shut - much to the delight of all students and staff.

The icy snap lasted for several days and meant ice on paths and roads was a hazard.

Not helped, of course, by the fact few of us could actually afford for the heating to be on too long given soaring energy costs. The story was read 121,635 times.

13. Brazilian family 'suffer vendetta' after moving to Chatham

A depressing tale of racially-motivated bullying of a young family after they moved to the UK from Brazil in pursuit of a better life pulled in 124,726 page views.

Marcelo Gomes and his family originally moved to Canterbury in 2020 and lived peacefully before moving to Chatham to be closer to his work place in Maidstone.

But the father revealed to us his family had seen the tyres slashed on his car and two motorbikes stolen in what he said was a vendetta because they're foreign.

He added they had regularly got abuse - being told to leave the UK as they "do not belong" here.

12. Travellers pitch caravans in town centre car park

When travellers pitched up camp in a car park on Rainham High Street it came hot on the heels of similar incidents on a recreation ground in Gillingham and Chatham.

Both of which resulted in Medway Council taking action to evict them after Sunday league football matches had to be postponed as a result.

This sort of thing never plays well with the good folk of Kent or Medway and the story was read 128,608 times.

The car park pitch-up prompted the unitary authority to head down there and tell them to move on.

11. Storm Eunice to hit hard as people told to stay home

The opening few months of 2022 were pretty turbulent. As Russian troops gathered on Ukraine's borders, the full force of nature slammed into Kent.

Storm Eunice was predicted to be fierce, which prompted rail and road chiefs to urge travellers to not travel ahead of it hitting the county.

A number of tourist destinations decided to play safe too and closed for the day.

The QEII Bridge at Dartford was closed too in preparation and the article was accessed132,973 as people prepared for the powerful winds. Eunice will figure again in this countdown...

10. OnlyFans performer flashes motorists from bridge

No idea why this story performed so well.

Billie Louise, 27, who has 14,900 followers on adult social media platform OnlyFans, shared a short video clip which showed her flashing her, ahem, assets to passing motorists from a Kent road bridge - thought to be in Thanet.

She later tweeted: "I had fun today on the bridge and I think the lorry drivers liked it."

It appears our readers certainly - or at least 133,646 of them - were intrigued.

9. Sadness as Kent butchers chain suddenly shuts

JC Rook & Sons was a familiar name for more than 55 years across Kent - with 11 stores spread about the county.

But in March the shutters came down on the business for the final time after it went into administration and our story was read 133,825 times after we broke the news.

More than 130 jobs were put at risk as shoppers once again bid farewell to a much-loved brand.

The chain had opened its first store in Dover in 1965.

8. Three floored as shirtless man fights outside McDonald's

A video clip of a brawl outside a branch of McDonald's in Ashford proved particularly unedifying as punches were thrown on a Friday night in September.

As people stood around cheering - who knows why? - one fella whips his shirt off as he took on a number of people - before being put flat on his backside.

All rather unpleasant but the clip was shared on social media by one onlooker and it whipped up more than two million views in a matter of hours. Our story got 144,733 page views.

There is, as with McDonald's, no accounting for taste.

7. Tattoo parlour tragedy thought to be 'murder-suicide'

A tragedy took place at a popular tattoo parlour in Canterbury in April.

Police had sealed off the GothInk Studio on the ring road after two bodies were found.

They said they were treating the deaths as a murder-suicide.

It transpired Catalin Micu, 54, had killed Ramona Stoira 35, with whom he had been in a relationship with, before killing himself. The story had some 144,711 page views.

6. Young girls 'attack' security at McDonald's

I wonder what it is about McDonald's that seems to attract trouble?

In September, police were investigating after a pregnant woman allegedly had a drink thrown over her and staff at McDonald's were assaulted.

Customers at the fast-food chain in Week Street, Maidstone, apparently witnessed a group of unruly girls throwing drinks and arguing with security. Some 165,219 of you read our story about it.

It is thought the youngsters were unhappy about being removed from the restaurant and, naturally, someone outside was on hand to record the resulting stand-off.

5. 'Bed was propped up with bricks and we were as welcome as a wet fart'

There are certain things you expect from an award-winning hotel. Having your bed propped up on bricks isn't, we can probably all agree, one of them and 174,002 of you wanted to know more.

But that was the situation facing one family with dad James Muller saying there were made to feel as welcome as a "wet fart" at the Blazing Donkey Country Hotel in Ham, near Sandwich.

A charming riposte which hotel owners defended by saying it was a temporary repair after it had been damaged by previous guests.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't leave a good rating for his stay on Tripadvisor.

4. Lorries blown over and buildings collapse as Eunice batters Kent

Storm Eunice prompted the county's first ever 'red' weather warning to be issued by the Met Office and it caused plenty of disruption.

One of the three chimneys at the power station on the Isle of Grain was blown over, dozens of roads were blocked by falling trees, power and water supplies were interrupted and buildings were damaged across the county.

Train services, it almost goes without saying, were completely cancelled.

Our live coverage during the day in February provided updates on issues faced across the county and was accessed 178,489 times.

3. Takeaway defends pizza size after tape measure post goes viral

We cover lots of very serious news items over the course of the year; tackling the big issues and topics which concern our readers.

So you can imagine our delight when one of our most read stories of the year - pulling in 225,190 of you - was about a row over the size of a pizza.

Westgate Pizza in Canterbury was forced to defend itself after a customer kicked up a fuss by whipping out a tape measure to inspect the size of a 15' pizza - it came up two inches short. And, naturally, they took to social media to vent their disappointment.

Opinion was split - with the takeaway pointing out, perhaps not unreasonably, that pizzas will shrink a little in the cooking process; while others demanded the owners be hung drawn and quartered. Or, at least, for Trading Standards to investigate.

2. The rarest 50p coins still in circulation

The lure of seeing if you had a rare 50p stuffed down the back of your sofa proved too much to resist for 236,802 of you in October.

Sparked by the release of the last ever 50 pence pieces to be made using the Queen's effigy following her death the previous month, the Royal Mint's list of the collectible coins which you could sell for many times their face value pulled in close to a quarter of a million people.

In case you were wondering, a Kew Garden 50p minted in 2009 - but limited to a mere 210,000 coins - tops the list.

If you want one, apparently they sell on eBay for anywhere between £80 and £200. In a shop, however, they will still only net you 50p's worth of goods. Shame.

1. Evri delivery probe after sackfuls of parcels dumped

In the run-up to Christmas, our reliance on getting all our gifts home delivered was sorely tested. Not only was the Royal Mail intermittently on strike, which meant the last day you could safely post something in time for the big day was September 16, or similar, but a huge sackful of boxes from one delivery giant was found dumped by the side of the road.

Evri, the delivery firm formerly known as Hermes, was forced to apologise to customers after the discovery in woods in Luton, Chatham.

It said the police were now investigating.

Not that it will come as much comfort for those whose presents ended up in the fly-tipping hotspot - no doubt some of which were among the 251,671 which made it our most-read story of 2022.