A panoramic view of the beach looking towards Happisburgh in the distance, with the church tower depicted on the skyline. The vast expanse of the sky dominates the painting, and continues a long tradition of landscape painting of the Norfolk coast. At first glance the painting appears to be a landscape which alludes to the beach as a place of leisure and relaxation but it also implies potential dangers. Despite the sandy expanse, the sweep of beach in the foreground is emptied of people. The presence of windbreaks on the right hints at the reason for the lack of people sitting about. The sweeping tides also involve hidden dangers for swimmers and even the house with the red roof on the left may not be secure, since houses along this coast are threatened by the remorselessness of the sea.

This painting was commissioned by the National Maritime Museum from the artist as a modern treatment of a subject popular with Dutch 17th-century artists. Jamieson, who has signed it lower right, painted it between August 1981 and June 1982. The Museum also has another version of the subject (BHC4161) and two other works by this artist, of Yarmouth pier (BHC3872) and Yarmouth docks (BHC2363).