Thirty-year-old video footage of the town centre has become an unlikely YouTube hit.

A Drive Through Sittingbourne 1984, features Dave Gower and son Michael taking their car on a tour of the streets.

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This very “ordinary” film triggered an extraordinary public response, receiving nearly 5,000 hits just two days after it was uploaded to the internet site.

They might not have known at the time, but the pair’s brief “spin out” provides a fascinating, long-forgotten glimpse of Sittingbourne which might otherwise not exist, particularly as few people, if any, owned handheld video cameras in 1984.

Dave, who was 44 when he shot the film, provides a running commentary from the passenger seat of Michael’s Ford Fiesta 1300, pointing out a few significant and other less-celebrated landmarks which have long-since disappeared.

He said he was as shocked as anybody to find the footage had become a social media talking point after his daughter Caroline posted it.

Dave, now 73, said: “I’m really surprised that people have cottoned on to it.

“I didn’t know anyone else who a had a video camera back then – ours came from Radio Rentals and it was hired through work.

“I’m not sure why I decided to take it out that day and I had no idea it might come in handy 30 years later.”

The 11-minute film captures a journey between the Gowers’ former Ruins Barn Road address and Trinity Trading Estate where Dave was managing director of print firm, Southern Litho Supplies.

Of immediate note is the lack of cars on the road – stationary or otherwise.

But as the journey unfolds it becomes clear 1984 is light years away from the Sittingbourne we know today.

As they set off, Dave points out, Bernard Barker the Butcher’s, and Liptons – Northwood Drive businesses which are now a takeaway and Co-op, respectively.

Fewer vehicles there may have been, but there was more greenery, especially in Bell Road and Woodstock Road as the film was taken three years before the hurricane flattened trees in the area.

Video: Home video footage of Sittingbourne

Other notable differences include Sittingbourne High Street – then home to the Classic Cinema – being open to two-way traffic; the yet-to-be completed roundabout at Staplehurst Road/Chalkwell Road; and Swale council’s offices still based in Bell Road.

UK Paper is where Morrisons now stands, and the “recently built Mill Way looked very bare without Asda.

Dave, who now lives in Hugh Price Close and whose footage of the 1984 Sittingbourne Carnival is also available on YouTube, said: “It’s excellent seeing how things used to be.

“Personally, it reminds me that Sittingbourne’s changed for the worst, but then I would say that - I’m an old boy.”