100 years of the Shipping Forecast

On Friday 7th July 2025 it was 100 years since the Shipping Forecast was first broadcast - what better way to celebrate than to open my exhibition at The Courtyard in Hereford with artwork all based on the words and phrases in ‘The Ships’. 

I live in a landlocked county, I don’t sail or spend time at sea… but I really enjoy listening to The Shipping Forecast on Radio 4. 

During the pandemic I remember listening and thinking- this sounds like a forecast for this month/ day / period of time- if I left out the wind directions and some of the weather.

I started playing about with the idea of how the words could be used independently of the sea. The result was this tea towel design.

Last year I went to watch Charlie Connelly doing his show based on his book ‘Attention all Shipping’ in Shrewsbury. The theatre was full- Charlie asked the audience how many people lived or worked by/on the sea. The answer was very few… yet the Shipping Forecast appealed to so many people.

It was this that spurred me on to continue with this personal project of mine and to develop it.  I’ve been working in new ways and with different mediums- printmaking, working on boards and canvases, large scale lettering- it’s been a brilliant project that I’m not finished with yet.

I now have a body of work at The Courtyard in Hereford for a 10 day exhibition (4th-14th July) designed to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the Shipping Forecast and  Charlie Connelly visiting the theatre with his show on the 9th.

There will be tea towels, cards and calendars as well as original framed and unframed artwork and prints for sale.