Saint Olaf's Church of England in England
Deep in the spectacular Lake District National Park sits the tiny hamlet of Wasdale Head, located in the shadow of England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike, and near the shores of England's deepest lake, Wastwater.
Within the hamlet, the minute Saint Olaf's Church of England, at just 142 cubic meters, is England's smallest active parish church. Originally equipped with merely a few seats and an earth floor, the church now has enough pew seating to snuggly accommodate a maximum of 39 people.
Wasdale Head was originally a Norse settlement, with the name derived from the Norse 'Vanstdair', meaning 'valley of the water'. Legend says that the ancient timber roof beams were taken from Viking longships. The veracity of this story and the true age of the timbers, which have never been carbon tested, are up for debate, but the beams are believed to be original to the building.
The rural location of the church, and the agriculture nature of the area, are reflected in the churchwarden’s staves. One stave is adorned with the intricately carved head of a Herdwick ram, the other with the head of a ewe, a nod to this hardy species of sheep, a Cumbrian icon that thrives on the Lake District's harsh high fell environments.
While it was likely that there were earlier churches on the site, the first record of the church was in 1550. Nameless and referred to simply as Wasdale Head Church for most of its existence, the church only became St. Olaf's in 1977, after Norwegian friends of the rector at the time suggested the name. Also that same year, the church finally joined the electrical grid, having been lit by oil lamps up until that point.
St Olaf's also has a long association with mountaineering, as Wasdale Head is regarded as the traditional center of UK rock climbing. Several climbers are interred in the churchyard having perished on nearby fells. A memorial dedicated to Lake District Fell and Rock Climbing Club members who died in World War I, sits on a stone plinth in the churchyard, repositioned from its original place on the nearby fell Great Gable. Further solidifying the link to the mountains is an etching of Napes Needle, a rock formation on Great Gable, depicted on one of the church's diamond windows.
The church is surrounded by a ring of yew trees, that shield it from view until approached. Combined with the impressive mountains surrounding Wasdale Head, and the dramatic views across Wastwater and the Wasdale Valley, St Olaf's Church exudes a truly mythical and holy ambience, in one of the most incredibly picturesque locales in all of England.