Tapered fluidised bed reactors are increasingly adopted for a variety of applications because of their well-publicised stability and ease of operation under a wide range of operating conditions. In the present study, the bed expansion characteristics of a variety of solid materials (glass beads, sand and gravel) and pressure drop across the fluidised bed were studied at different solids loading. The fluid phase used was tap water. The experiments were carried out in a tapered column having an apex angle of 30 degrees. Pressure drop-flow rate and bed height-flow rate diagrams are presented for the range of the data generated. It is observed that the pressure drop behaviour conforms to that reported in the literature i.e., there is a sharp peak in the pressure drop around the condition of incipient fluidisation. The bed height-flow rate graphs are classical enabling the determination of the minimum fluidising velocity for the range of solid materials covered. The maximum pressure drop (Delta P-max), critical velocity (u(c)) and the minimum fluidising velocity (u(mf)) are neatly tabulated.