Roll up, roll up! For all the fun of the Portsmouth fair on the hill

Youngsters are showing off by standing in the beautifully-carved wooden boatswings (remember them?) to give themselves added impetus.

Higher and higher they swung until they must have felt as though they were almost on an equal level to the hilltop fort.

The marvellously-atmospheric picture at the foot of this page comes from Waterlooville photographer, collector and seller Paul Costen (costen.co.uk). There’s so much going on in it you can almost hear the babble of excited voices, the tinkling of a steam organ and sniff the distinctive aromas of cockles, jellied eels and toffee apples.

The photographer has captured two young Royal Navy sailors in the foreground, one smoking a clay pipe, walking purposefully towards a group of young women...