Cultural landscapes, as Christian Norberg-Shulz, writes in his influential text, Genius-Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, consist not only of settlements – from houses and farms to villages and towns – but also the ‘paths’ that connect the places we live. In combination these two things transform nature into a cultural landscape.
Over the years I have developed an interest in travel as an aspect of phenomenological experience – particularly as it relates to being (in the philosophical sense) as it is temporarily suspended when between places, which is to say, when mind and body are in transit – and that led me to a consideration of the routes in and out of Cumbria and particularly those to the coast, as they would be significant in understanding the contrasting cultural landscapes of West Cumbria and the Cumbria of the Lake District National Park.
So, it was with some fascination that I came across a report from 1976 about the town of Millom and its fate following the closure of its ironworks. The article suggested that one means of regenerating Millom – and presumably this might have applied to other towns further up the Cumbrian coast – would have been to route the M6 motorway around the Lake District. “The extension of the M6 now under construction”, wrote John Ardill in the Guardian (12 Oct 1968), “could have been routed across the Duddon Estuary to Millom and up the coast instead of through the Lake District”:
Arguably this would be a safer route avoiding the bad weather problems of the Lake District. It would have served the industry of West Cumberland better, and it would have rescued Millom from an isolation almost as complete as that of an offshore island.
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Read about the construction of the M6 over Shap Fell in this archived Design journal article from 1971..
It wasn’t the only time that people had dreamt up some form of transport that could cut across the Duddon Estuary. Addressing the remoteness of this region was also behind attempts in the 1970s to introduce a hovercraft service to serve the communities around the Duddon Estuary. It was demonstrated that these craft could cut the 30-minute car journey from Millom to Askam down to 100 seconds.
The Sealand company, who were behind the idea, was based at Millom in the 1970s, and hoped to develop its services around the Duddon Estuary in part because of the anticipated growth of the population of Haverigg following the development of new housing in the mid-70s. The plan had been to build 500-plus new homes, but its ambitions were not to be fully realised.
The idea of using a hovercraft to circumvent travel problems, though, was in tune with the era – this was a time when British Rail, for instance, was operating hovercraft services that connected the UK and Europe. Perhaps one day we will see these great rubber-bottomed machines skimming across the water.