The bulk of Portsmouth sits on Portsea Island, a very flat island not very high above sea level – our house near the centre of the island is at probably one of the highest points and would gain beachfront views if the sea levels rose a handful of metres – and generally suffers from a lack of natural drainage as a result. Between 1865 and 1904 Colonel John Frederick Crease and Sir Frederick Bramwell oversaw construction of the pumping engine houses that would help the gravity-fed drainage system pull sewage into holding locations until such time as it could be ejected with the tide. The engines were officially switched on in 1887 and were still kept operational as backups until as late as 1954. Following restoration work the engine houses at Eastney were opened as museums in 1972.

If you like the steampunk vibe then you’ll enjoy any visit where Victorian era engineering is on show and Eastney Beam Engine didn’t disappoint here at all. Seeing the machinery in operation was mesmerising given the smoothness of the operation and generally quiet pumping taking place.

At some point after this visit I did some pseudo-HDR photo processing of a couple of pictures inside the Eastney Beam Engine House, likely at the time to share them on Google+ at the time. They’re below, and they were done with some fairly basic faked exposure variations in monochrome tones stacked on top of one another.

The location was ideal for something with this name, given the proximity to the seaside – just over the fortifications of Southsea Castle, in fact – and the fact it was in a field, considered by most people to be more representative of the word “rural” than, say, a block of flats. Well done to the organisers there.

This sort of show appeals to people with a sense of nostalgia for simpler times, which can be dangerous as those are the types of people who do stupid things and vote for Brexit a few years later, but they’re generally good fun for families too with various attractions, activities to enjoy, and animals and vintage vehicles to be entertained by.

For us this was a chance to get out of the house, get some exercise, and get some air, but there wasn’t a whole lot to engage us – and, admittedly, we’re hard to engage with anyway as we’re introverted souls – so we didn’t stay too long at the Rural and Seaside Show. That’s not to say that we wouldn’t go to another one if they started them up again, though. What we did like seeing was an old Gales Brewery wagon. We may not be people who think things were better in the past thanks to an ability to be able to read and comprehend statistics and not rely on anecdotes, but we do miss the output of one of the Portsmouth area’s finest breweries and we will always lament the loss of any type of beer-making in this country.