The development and initial testing of a custom built UV-Visible microspectrometer for the analysis of materials supported on resins at the single-bead level is described with qualitative, quantitative and time-resolved UV-Vis spectroscopy being demonstrated with a variety of resins and supported chromophores. On-bead UV-Vis spectroscopy was extended to a variety of applications including the development of fibre-optic pH sensors utilising indicator dyes covalently attached to macroporous controlled pore glass beads and procedures for the attachment of carboxyl- and aniline-functionalised dyes to glass beads and for interfacing a single sensor bead to a UV-Vis spectrometer are described. Analysis of solid-supported chromophoric metal ligands was conducted for the detection and assessment of solid-supported tripeptides with high affinity for Cu, Ni and Co from a combinatorial "split-and-mix" library. The affinity of the various actively binding peptide sequences were estimated by quantifying the amount of chromophore produced within individual beads when exposed to an appropriate staining regent. On-bead e.e. determination of polystyrene-supported leucine and phenylalanine was also demonstrated by parallel kinetic chiral resolution using pseudoenantiomeric chromophore probes, followed by on-bead UV-Vis microspectrometric quantification of the attached probes. The e.e. measurement was conducted without the need for cleavage of the substrates from the resin at any stage and was successful even with low resin loadings.