Church of St Olaf, Wasdale
Coordinates: 54°28′02″N 3°15′13″W / 54.4671°N 3.2535°W
St Olaf's Church in Wasdale Head, Cumbria, is one of England's smallest churches. The earliest record of the church is from 1550, though it probably predates this, as the beams are said to come from a Viking longship.
The church was dedicated to St Olaf in 1977, before which it had no name. The parson of that time, the Reverend Raymond Bowers, had friends in Norway, and it was he who suggested the name. One of the current churchwardens, Bill Bailey, has written a guide to the church and the Wasdale valley: The Vikings: Wasdale Head and Their Church. The book sought to clarify the age of the church; and to mark the 2nd millennium the Bishop of Penrith, the Right Reverend Richard Garrard, made a unilateral declaration—on the Sunday nearest the Feast of St Olaf, 30 July 2000—that the church building was at least 1,000 years old, dating from before AD 1000. At the same time, the bishop dedicated a "millennium stone" on the Wasdale Head Green, using the stone as an altar for the service.
The church has long been associated with British climbers. The south window has a small pane within it with an etching of Napes Needle on Great Gable, serving as a memorial to members of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club who lost their lives in the First World War. A well-attended silence is kept every year on Remembrance Sunday at 11 AM.
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