The centenary of the shipping forecast on BBC Radio has been celebrated at the beginning of the year with a number of famous names.

Actors Sir Stephen Fry, Adrian Dunbar, Ruth Jones as well as other famous names such as Dame Ellen MacArthur have been recreating old versions of the shipping forecast .

The actual forecast began as a bulletin called Weather Shipping a year earlier on January 1 1924 broadcast by the Air Ministry station G.F.A. in London.

The South Hams falls into parts of two shipping areas, Plymouth and Portland with the boundary between the two around Start Point.

A post by The Yacht Market described the two areas:

‘Plymouth– takes its name from the city on the coast of Devon which is linked inevitably with Sir Francis Drake.

It was from this port that he embarked on his privateering exploits to Spain and from here too that the British fleet, with him as Vice Admiral, set out to confront the Spanish ships of the Armada in 1588.

Its River Tamar marks the border between Devon and Cornwall and together with the River Plym flows into the natural harbour of Plymouth Sound used by large commercial vessels, ferries, fishing vessels and many amateur boatmen.

The city has the largest operational naval base in Western Europe and ferry links to France and Spain. The famous lighthouse the “Eddystone” stands 9 miles south west of Rame Head.

The current one is the 4th and was designed by James Douglas and first lit in 1882.

It replaced the celebrated Smeaton’s tower of 1756. John Smeaton modelled it on the shape of an oak tree and built it of granite blocks.

It was only replaced when the rocks beneath it began to erode causing the tower to shake.

The foundations proved too strong to be removed and the stub of Smeaton’s Tower can still be seen.

Portland– named after the area which is almost an island 5 miles south of Weymouth.

Portland harbour is one of the largest man-made harbours in the world. It was a Royal Navy base and played important roles in the First and Second World Wars.

The lighthouse on Portland Bill is a vital landmark for ships passing the headland and its tidal race. Portland Ledge (the Shambles) is an underwater extension of Portland Stone into the English Channel. It disrupts the tidal flow and causes a race (Portland Race) to the south of Portland Bill.

Fourteen ships were lost there one stormy night in 1901 – 10 years before the Shipping Forecast was first broadcast.

The current only stops for brief periods in the tidal cycle and in spring tide of 2 metres it can reach 4 metres per second, approximately 8 knots.’

The shipping forecast is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave at 0.48am, 5.20am, 12.01pm and 5.54pm and also on FM at 0.48am and 5.20am.

An inshore waters forecast is broadcast covering the area up to 12 miles out to sea from between Lyme Regis and Lands End.