Helle is a village in the

Kragerø Kragerø () is a List of cities in Norway, town and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional regions of Grenland and the smaller Vestmar. ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, located on the north shores of Hellefjorden about northeast of the city of Kragerø. For the purpose of the Norwegian census the village is combined with its neighbor village to the west,

Vadfoss Vadfoss is a village in Kragerø List of municipalities of Norway, municipality of Norway, located on the Kammerfoss River (alternate name: Kragerø River) midway between Helle, Telemark, Helle to the east and Sannidal to the west. It is also clo ...

, and listed as Vadfoss/Helle. As of January 2012, the Vadfoss/Helle area has a population of 1,556 over an area of , giving it a density of . Helle includes the neighborhoods of Nordbø, Sollia, Måneliheia and Skarbo. Lakes in the area include Upper and Lower Strandtjenn, Langtjenn, Bastautjenn, Årømyrtjenna and Svarttjenn. The village is connected to the rest of Norway via road by Fylkesvei 363 and 210, and via

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

by Nettbuss Sør Route 459 and Drangedal Bilruter Route 609. The nearest E-road is the E18, which passes through

Sannidal Sannidal is a former municipality which is now located in the municipality of Kragerø in Telemark county, Norway. History Sannidal is situated at the end of the Kil fjord. For this reason it was one of the earliest settlements in the area, bein ...

to the west.

History

Helle started out as an industrial community when the Helle Bruk

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

was built in 1580. The sawmill was in continuous operation until 1930 when it was shut down. The village was also known for its

ice harvesting Ice cutting is a winter task of collecting surface ice from lakes and rivers for storage in ice houses and use or sale as a cooling method. Rare today, it was common (see ice trade) before the era of widespread mechanical refrigeration and air ...

industry, and at one point it had three different companies exporting ice from the area. There was also a

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

s factory in the Skarbo neighborhood with about 45 employees that was founded in 1909. It was in continuous operation up until 2005 when the company moved operations to an industrial park on the border of Kragerø and

Drangedal Drangedal is a municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Prestestranda. The municipality of Drangedal was established ...

just north of the E18. Today, Helle is largely a

residential community A residential community is a community, usually a small town or city, that is composed mostly of residents, as opposed to commercial businesses and/or industrial facilities, all three of which are considered to be the three main types of occup ...

, with the exception of a few businesses on Helleveien. In the Sollia neighborhood there is a small wooden church, Hellekirken, which was built in 1994. The church includes a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

, a kitchen, multiple meeting rooms, and a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

with 200 seats. There was formerly a small

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

in the village center, but it closed around the turn of the millennium. In 2008, a large new elementary school, Helleskolen, was built in the Nordbø neighborhood to replace Årø School and Skarbo School. It houses about 200 students and includes sports facilities such as an

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

field.

References

{{authority control Villages in Vestfold og Telemark Kragerø