When the historians of future generations look back to the early 2020s, 2023 is probably not going to get a glowing write-up.

It will trump the pandemic hell of 2020 and 2021, but otherwise – for the good people of Kent – it has been a bit of a gloomy one.

Let’s kick-off this review of the last 12 months with a look at that perennial fascination of ours – the weather.

In 2022, if you cast your mind back, we had a hot spell which gave the legendary summer of 1976 a run for its money. It was followed by plenty of talk of how we should now brace ourselves for Mediterranean-style summers going forward. No longer would we need to spend a fortune to hunt out sun in foreign climes. We could just set up camp in our back gardens.

The summer of 2023, however, did its level best to dispel that theory. We were tricked by June being something of a scorcher – many in Kent even had a hosepipe ban introduced before the month was out – but, typically, as soon as the school holidays began, so the patchy weather started.

In fact, rain had filled up our reservoirs by such an extent that by early August that ban was lifted. It was, ultimately, something of a damp squib.

While there had been some sporadic snow at the start of the year (if you lived near the coast, chances are you missed the white stuff), the winter months seemed long and cold. Not helped by the fact the cost of energy bills at the time were at record highs. So much so, in fact, the government was dishing out cash to each household so we could actually turn the heating on. Occasionally.

While the energy price cap took a dip in the spring, the loss of that extra money meant few felt any real difference. It’s fractionally better now.

As we stumbled out of the summer months wondering where the sun we’d been promised had gone, we then had a number of storms to contend with – most notably Storm Ciaran at the start of November.

It brought 85mph winds and the predictable upturning of trees and disruption to travel services.

Which made for a change as to why we couldn’t catch our normal train. Because for much of the year, a series of strikes by both railway drivers and railway staff pretty much closed all of Kent’s routes down on selected dates.

In June, they managed to walk out on the same day as the Epsom Derby, a Beyonce concert at Spurs’ football stadium, a Test match at Lords and the FA Cup Final between the blue and red halves of Manchester. Which, given most of Manchester United’s fans live in the Home Counties caused more than a few headaches.

The RMT – which represents train operator staff – has now reached a pay agreement. Train drivers union Aslef, however, has not. So expect more disruption in the new year.

The year will be remembered for what felt like relentless industrial action – much like 2022. Teachers – or at least those in the NEU - staged several walk-outs – which caused schools in the county to either close or shut to certain year groups.

And the NHS wasn’t left untouched either. Nurses and doctors and even ambulance workers, staged a series of days of action which limited medical services for many and created unease for the rest of us.

Meanwhile, if you lived in the Canterbury district, you also had the delights of binmen (and women) downing tools for 67 days during the late spring and early summer.

It was not so much a winter of discontent, but a full year of it.

There was also a consultation launched by Kent County Council – which spent much of the year telling people it was not about to go bust like others around the country – into closing a number of refuse sites in a bid to save money.

One of the more radical options saw four sites – Dartford, Sandwich, Maidstone and Faversham – all on the chopping block in a move which could have saved £1.5m. Announced in May, the proposal lasted until November when it was ditched with councillors fearing such steps may hurt them too much at the next round of local elections.

Staying with essential services, the county’s schools faced plenty of challenges – from record levels of absence post-pandemic to the regular fear of a poor Ofsted inspection. But one story dominated the year in the county and that was on Sheppey.

The Oasis Academy – which hosts 1,500 pupils across sites in Sheerness and Minster – was dramatically informed the Oasis Community Learning Trust was going to cut its ties with the school in February. It followed a dire Ofsted inspection report and left its reputation in tatters. By the end of the year, two trusts had stepped forward to vow to turn around its fortunes. Splitting the school into two, the Leigh Academies Trust will take over one – consultations permitting – and the EKC Schools Trust the other.

They will have their work cut out. In November, teachers had walked out amid safety concerns over the behaviour of the students. By December one former head teacher was suggesting security be called in to keep classrooms safe as a last resort. For the sake of the children and local community, it is essential 2024 paves the way to a brighter future.

Elsewhere, many schools were presented with a challenge they weren’t expecting.

The catchy-named Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) was, in short, a popular building material several decades ago which, it has now been discovered, has a limited lifespan.

First detected when the ceiling of a school in Gravesend crashed down five years ago, it resulted in the government demanding all buildings which may have used the material – which includes schools, hospitals and other municipal sites, being checked.

The result? In total nine schools in the county – out of more than 170 countrywide - had to take action after surveys revealed they had the troublesome material as part of their structures.

In addition, it was discovered at Medway Council’s HQ and Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham. On a wider scale, a number of hospitals nationwide found themselves elevated up the list for government funding as a consequence of the RAAC found in their structures. None in Kent though. The county’s hospitals had plenty on their hands already, given a growing A&E crisis earlier in the year which saw patients waiting 12-hours in corridors for a bed.

It also delivered a huge blow to the Orchard Theatre in Dartford which found RAAC in its roof and had to shut the building down in September. It remains closed.

However, proving the show must go on, its Christmas panto is going ahead in a temporary theatre over the festive period. Oh yes it is.

A celebrity face is often spotted in the county (and not just at panto season) – and we seemed to have had our fair share this year.

From the likes of Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise to music superstar Ed Sheeran (who seemed hardly able to keep away from the place) we even had genuine royalty, when the Princess of Wales paid a visit to Sittingbourne.

The fictional retelling of the Windsors – The Crown – was also in Rochester shooting scenes for its latest series.

In addition, Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss was spotted filming in Canterbury, The Mandalorian and Last of Us actor Pedro Pascal was in Margate trying (unsuccessfully) to visit a gallery in his honour,

Little Women’s Florence Pugh and Spider-Man Andrew Garfield shot scenes in a Co-op in Bexley, while football legend David Beckham braved the rain to watch his son, Romeo, turn out for Brentford B against Erith & Belvedere in Welling. Naturally, he stole all the headlines.

His former Manchester United and England team-mate, Rio Ferdinand, was also spotted in a cafe in Rainham, while Queen guitarist Brian May popped up in Hythe.

The former home of Kenneth Noye – a key cog in the Brink’s Mat gold bullion robbery – was also used in The Gold, a BBC dramatisation of the heist and its aftermath. It’s back for a second season soon, by the way.

But most of the big productions which planned to use the county for location shoots disappeared as a result of the Hollywood writers’ and then actors’ strike which saw filming cease abruptly. It cost the county’s local economy £4 million in lost revenues as productions were – temporarily at least – shelved. As if we hadn’t enough industrial action.

Former Pointless presenter, turned best-selling author, Richard Osman based plenty of scenes from his latest in the Thursday Murder Club series – The Last Devil To Die - in the county once again – and rounded the year off by celebrating his wedding anniversary with a special train journey through Kent.

However, 2023 also saw the loss of some famous names (and we don’t mean Bucks Fizz star Cheryl Baker and actor and model Kelly Brook – who both put their Kent homes up for sale this year).

There was a nationwide outpouring of grief at the loss of Aldington’s Paul O’Grady who passed away at the age of 67 in March. Mourners lined the streets of the village as his funeral cortège took him on his final journey.

Strictly star Len Goodman, who lived in Dartford for many years and had a home in Ightham, near Sevenoaks, waltzed off this mortal coil in April when he died in Tunbridge Wells. He was 78.

There was heartache too for Location, Location, Location star Phil Spencer. In August, both his parents died following a tragic accident on the farm on which he grew up in Littlebourne, near Canterbury. Their car crashed and ended up in a river.

The Singing Detective and Harry Potter star Michael Gambon, who had a home near Meopham, died in September, at the age of 82, while Pogues frontman Shane McGowan – who, remarkably, was born in Tunbridge Wells, of all places (he would live there until moving back to Ireland at the age of 13) – died at the end of November. He was 65.

The afterlife just got a great deal more colourful.