Hi,
I'm from Norway, but I live in Liverpool, and the other day, I was in Chester, and I coinsidentily
stubled upon, the St. Olave's Church, since I thought I had to see a bit of the other towns and
cities, in the North-West, and not only Liverpool.
I took some pictures of the church, and posted on my blog.
From the 'sign' there, it could seem like the church was from the 18th century, so much was
my surprice, when I searched on the internet, and found, that the chuch was almost a thousand
years old, built by Norwegian Vikings who were refugees from Dublin, since they lost control there,
it seems to me, after reading on the internet about this.
I read on a blog called 'Ainscough Family History', which I found throug Google, about the 'Viking
march', between the Wirral and Chester.
So I wrote a comment on that blog, with questions about the St. Olave's Church, and was adviced
to contact you.
I was just wondering if the church is listed, since I don't think we have that old viking stone-
buildings in Norway.
We have 'stav'-churches, in three, but I don't think we have any stone-buildings, that are this old.
So, I was just curious about this.
I also wondered if there had been conflicts between the St. Olave's Parish and the St. Michaels
Parish, since on one building, 'Nine Houses', the borded between the parishes, was written on
the buildings facade.
And, I was also wondering, why it isn't a plaque there, explaining about, that the church is almost
a thousand years old, built by Vikings from Ireland, because the plaque that's there now, makes
it almost seem, that the building was built much later, or, it only least the year the church was
conserved, in the 18th century, I think it was.
As I understand, all the part of Chester, from the main street, and down to river, used to be
a Viking-district.
I was wondering, on some of the half timbered houses, I saw some symbols that looked a bit
like what we call 'firkløver', that's four-cleaver, I think, in English, could these symbols have
been from Norway, or are they English, since I heard that these black and white half-timbered
houses are 'Tudor-style', so I guess that the Vikings, in Chester, would have other types of
buildings, that was there, before the Tudor-style buildings,contemporary with the St. Olave's
Church?
Sorry that I'm asking a lot of questions, I understand if you haven't got the time to answer any
of these questions.
I just coincidentaly notices this church, when I was in Chester, and thought it was fun, to see
place-names, and buildings, named after a Norwegian king, that we learned about at school,
in Norway.
And at school, in Norway, we, as far as I remember, only learned about that York, or 'Jorvik',
like the Vikings called the town or city, was a Norwegian Viking-town or city.
But we didn't learn about, that there were viking setlements, in Cheshire and Merseyside.
So I wasn't aware of, that there was Viking-buildings, in Chester, when I went there, so I was
a bit surprised to see the church, and read about it on the internet, so that was very fun.
I thought that maybe this church, could be one of the few buildings etc,. that remained,
after the Vikings, that had to leave Ireland.
In Norway, we learn at school, that Vikings founded Dublin etc., but we don't learn that
they went to England, after they lost control in Ireland, so this was fun to learn.
So sorry again that I'm asking a lot of questions, and thanks in advance, if you have the
time to explain about any of the questions which I've ask!
Yours sincerely,
Erik Ribsskog
