The study aims at a broad understanding of the beach processes operating between Selsey Bill and Portsmouth, a coastline which can be considered to be a distinct coastal unit because there is no transfer of sediment across its boundaries, and which has never before been studied in its entirety. The major part of the work consists of a desk study into the beach and near shore sediments, the detailed history of coastal evolution over the last two centuries (which has been analysed to hindcast littoral drift rates), the assessment of littoral drift rates at barriers, rates of input and output to the littoral sediment budget, the mechanisms by which shingle bypasses tidal inlets and the effect of dredging on this process, and the history and effect of coast protection works on the beach. Field work chiefly consisted of sediment sampling on the beach and nearshore seabed to define the existing sediment distribution patterns and the processes which created them. A computer program was developed to process the sieve analysis data and to utilise the best available estimates of mean size, sorting, skewness and kurtosis to describe the sample, and to investigate the inter-relationships between these parameters which identify the environment in which the sediment was laid down.