For almost a century, a stretch of road in Kent was the gateway for millions of motorists to one of the county’s coastal towns.

Yet today it has become a ‘ghost road’ - left abandoned and slowly but surely being consumed by nature.

The A253 once picked up where the old Thanet Way ended at Monkton, hugging closely the southerly perimeter fence of Manston Airport.

In doing so, the airfield became a landmark on journeys; a sign that the coast and the town of Ramsgate - then a busy port as well as a popular tourist spot - were just minutes away.

For those using the road, it brought them within just a few hundred yards of the edge of the runway - frequently offering the driver-distracting view of aircraft taking off or landing.

Looking in the opposite direction, the long-since demolished Richborough Power Station cooling towers provided another key focal point.

Then the road carried on through the village of Cliffsend and eventually onto Ramsgate.

But in 2009, three years of major work began on upgrading the roads in the area.

The A299 was extended - a new dual-carriageway built, the Hengist Way, stretching from the Minister roundabout, and ultimately down to the port via the Ramsgate Harbour Access Tunnel, cutting across what was farmland.

The A253 saw a sizeable chunk of its length removed from public use. It effectively cut off the road along the airport, with the original road through Cliffsend retained (and accessed via the new Cliffsend roundabout) but with traffic signals in place to deter all but local traffic.

Yet the old road was not, as many assume, dug up. Instead, its remains lie decaying. If you’re a regular to the area, the chances are you drive past it without realising it is still there.

The sound of tyres on Tarmac still echo from the nearby dual-carriageway, but the road which once carried all those holidaymakers is now dominated by weeds, overgrown foliage from the airport’s boundaries and the occasional pile of fly-tipped rubbish.

In fact, were you to brave the public pavement that stretches along the A299, it would be easy to miss the road altogether.

But step over a small mound of earth - designed to stop unauthorised vehicle access - and you find yourself walking along the old road. Cats eyes still dot the carriageway and the road markings remain clearly visible.

In fact, the road surface has proved remarkably stable and looks in relatively good condition - eased by more than a decade of not having tonnes of metal racing along it.

To be clear, the land is private - owned by Edward Spanton Farms, whose land was built on by the new dual-carriageway - and thus permission needs to be sought to access it. The farm’s main estate sits on the other side of the road on which cars and lorries hurtle.

But it continues to farm the thin slither of land which forms the meat in the sandwich between the new and old road - a small oasis of calm.

It also allows you time to ponder the history of this particular area.

During the construction of a gas pipeline in 1984, three graves dating back to the late sixth to mid-seventh centuries were discovered. Archaeologists thought items found near the unearthed skeletal remains - which included a knife, bronze ring and buckle and gold coins - pointed to them belonging to “an affluent community”.

A wooden structure, thought to have been a boat, was also found covering the remains.

Back then, Thanet was an island and the land there today likely to have been close to the Wantsum Channel - the body of water which cut it off from the mainland. Where those remains were uncovered is now deep beneath the busy Hengist Way.

Today, the land between the old and new roads stretches around four to five hectares. Crops are grown and the farmland is clearly well maintained.

Somewhere in this small area was a small concrete underground chamber built in the early 1960s. Its purpose was to monitor radioactive fallout in the event of a nuclear attack. It formed part of a national network of nuclear monitoring posts built during the peak of the Cold War era.

This is, it seems, an area of relics - the A253 being just the latest. But what happens when a modern road is closed off and no longer used?

The road had originally been owned and maintained by Kent County Council. When approached by KentOnline it admitted it wasn’t sure if the road still belonged to it or had been transferred over to the farm. Matthew Spanton, who manages the farm with his father, Edward, was equally uncertain as to its current ownership.

A spokesperson for KCC said: "Typically, when new roads are built to upgrade or improve older roads, surplus areas of land and roads are no longer the responsibility of Kent Highways and, following a legal process, will return to freehold or neighbouring landowners.

“Often there will be utility services below the old roads which is why they may not be physically removed."

Since the road’s closure, it’s not been without its issues though.

Matthew Spanton explained: “When the road was first moved, travellers got up there and we had some issues with rubbish being dumped.

“Once they moved on, we had to make sure it was all fenced in.”

Walking along the road on a dull, dank day, there remains a small pile of rubbish - broken wood, old paint pots. And just beyond it, an access gate to the runway and short access road linking it to the dual-carriageway.

It is this route that as many as 4,000 lorries stored at the airport when there was chaos at the ports during the Covid crisis in December 2020 were eventually released back onto the road network to make their way to Dover.

Manston Airport chiefs informed us it retains access rights to this mini link road and will continue to do so as an emergency access route next to the runway even once its major multi-million pound redevelopment takes place.

The old road continues to follow the airport’s perimeter fence until finally you can see where the existing road through Cliffsend picks up where it once left off.

For many, it may now be out of view, but this particular, memorable stretch of road, is quietly living out its retirement.