Mythical Past, Infinite Future: A Journey into Britain's Energy Coast

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which time and change have defined a little known and overlooked region, West Cumberland, that is at one and the same time can be characterised by its attachment to a mythologised past and its openness to a future that, from a human perspective, might as well reach to infinity. It is a condition that has arisen primarily as a consequence of its native industries and the way that its geology and geographical location have shaped it into its present form as ‘Britain's Energy Coast.’ The region is further seen as dynamic and fluid when set against the image of place that most people who live outside of the region will be familiar with, which is belongs to the Lake District National Park, a landscape that by contrast to the coastal region of Cumberland, may seem to be timeless and unchanging.