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

This article explores the ways in which time and change have defined West Cumbria, a little known and overlooked region that is characterized by both an attachment to a mythologized past and an openness to a future that, from a human perspective, might as well reach to infinity. This condition has arisen primarily because of West Cumbria's native industries and from the way that its geology and geographical location have shaped it into its present form and allowed it to brand itself 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 it would be familiar with, which is associated with the Lake District National Park, a landscape that by contrast to the coastal region of Cumbria may seem to be timeless and unchanging.