Palaeolithic 450,000 – 12,000 BC
People were making tools for hunting and cutting up meat on the beaches under the cliffs in the Harbour area. They may have been getting flints out of the chalk cliffs. There may have been mudflats and lagoons. Animals which may have been hunted include; red deer, roe deer, horse, boar, bear, wolf, elephant, rhinoceros, lion and hyena.

Mesolithic 12,000 – 4,000 BC
As the Glaciers melted sea levels rose, cutting Britain off from the rest of Europe. There were streams, deep river valleys and forests. Valleys may have been used as routes to the coast, and for hunting camps. Mesolithic people probably hunted smaller animals such as deer and cattle and caught fish and shellfish. Meat was probably butchered at the kill site. The harbour area is likely to have been visited by people who lived inland. They may have cleared areas of woodland to make short-term settlements. In the later Mesolithic Period, people could trap game and find other foods in the pine forests that covered the sides of the valleys. As sea levels rose and salt water met fresh water in estuaries, people could eat a wider choice of fish and shellfish.

In the Iron Age large areas of the harbour were salt marsh. Much of what has been found is evidence of salt working. Tourner Bury Hillfort on Hayling Island may have been connected with salt working. We are not sure that people lived full-time in the harbour area, they may have visited to take salt from the sea, or to hunt, or to graze farm animals. It is possible that Fishbourne was a settlement and trading place where boats could land, but this is not certain.

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Chichester Harbour presented the Romans with a safe harbour for their boats and a friendly tribe whom they would not have to fight. There are early wooden storage buildings and gravel roads. At Fishbourne there was an early palace, where the local king Togidubnus lived supported by the Romans. A larger palace replaced the earlier one in 75AD, using stone probably brought in by sea, and tiles made at Copperas point near Dell Quay. The Romans may have unloaded goods at Copperas Point onto smaller boats or carts, as the channel would have been too shallow to bring large ships any closer to the palace.

There was a temple at Northney on Hayling Island. The Wadeway from Langstone to Hayling Island may be dated to Roman times.

At Broadbridge (Bosham) there was a villa,a temple and possibly an amphitheatre. In this area a marble statue head was found, also a coin and a brooch. On Penwarden Way a tegula tile was found in topsoil. This suggests that the North part of Bosham was being used in Roman times. By Bosham Church an enormous stone head was found, this size of statue would have been put into a public building, such as a temple. It is thought that there was a Roman building where the church stands today.

Farming continued into the Roman Age, with farming estates around villas (Roman houses) such as at Bosham, Warblington (near Emsworth), and Langstone. The Roman farms tended to be on the richer soil, leaving the other areas for the poorer peasants. Trees were needed for buildings, and woodland was cleared for growing crops. Some farm produce was exported (sent abroad). Goods such as wine and olive oil were imported from other parts of the Roman Empire using Fishbourne as a port.
Salt was taken out of sea water by evaporation and then by heating the water over fires.

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After the Roman army left, the number of people living and working in the area became smaller, with less farming and fewer villages. People may have used a system of barter (swapping goods) instead of money. Bosham may have continued as a settlement, there was a monastery there in 650AD and the church is Saxon.
The better soils in the area were probably used for crops, the poorer soils as pasture for animals, the wet valleys for meadow and the woodland for timber and grazing. No salterns have been identified from this time, but salterns are listed in the Domesday Book (in 1086), for example in South Hayling there is Mengham Saltern.

The population grew during this time (with a drop in the 14th century which may have been caused by the Black Death). People lived in villages around their parish churches. There were manor houses, some of which had moats (Warblington, Apuldram and Bosham). Rymans at Apuldram is a medieval house, built in 1410. 
Warblington Castle is in fact the surviving gatehouse to a fortified manor house, which was built around 1520 and destroyed in the civil war.

Many of the churches in the area were built at this time.

Farming was very important in the harbour area, for crops like corn and animals such as sheep and cattle. Open fields were ploughed by oxen, which lived on nearby meadows. Large estates may have had deer parks around them, where rich people could hunt.

The Modern Age has seen a large growth in population, as many people want to live in the harbour area. There are more roads, houses, cafes, shops and other businesses all supplying what people need to live.
In modern farming many hedges have been removed, creating larger fields, to make it easier to farm with tractors, rather than by horse or ox drawn equipment.

In the last century there were 2 World Wars. The harbour was used to defend Britain and also as a base to fight the enemy abroad.

In World War 1 An airfield was in use on the Chidham peninsula at Cobnor. This was used as a testing field and as a flying school.

In World War 2 many shorelines in the harbour were defended with concrete blocks, used as anti invasion defenses.  A boom was put across the mouth of the harbour, secured to underwater concrete pillars.
There were also pillboxes and machine gun placements, especially on Thorney Island, which was an airfield from 1938. Flying stopped in 1975, but the Island is still used as an army base.

There was an airfield at Apuldram from February 1943 to November 1944, used by a squadron of Czech pilots flying Spitfires modified to carry bombs and Typhoons. Since the war the airfield has been used as farmland.
Birdham Pool was used by the Navy during the war for building and repairing small craft. The turntable and slipways are still in use in the boatyard. Today Birdham is a tranquil marina and boatyard.

Recreational boating (for fun) has increased since the 1930s; sailing became very popular after the War. Since World War 1, sailing clubs started up at Hayling, Itchenor, Emsworth and Bosham. Chichester Harbour is now home to about 11000 vessels, with increasing demand for marina berths and moorings.

There is less commercial fishing than in the past, but some boats still bring in fish to Emsworth. The oyster trade suffered a blow after pollution led to a bad case of poisoning, but it is hoped that Emsworth Oysters may make a comeback. The oyster boat “The Terror” is being restored in The Dolphin Shipyard in Emsworth. Boat building and repair still provide jobs around the harbour, with boatyards at Emsworth, Birdham, Dell Quay and Itchenor.