Lårdal is a former municipality in Telemark county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. The area centered around the Lårdalen valley and it is now part of Tokke Municipality. The

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

was the village of Lårdal.

History

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Laardal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1879, there was a small border adjustment where a part of Laardal Municipality (population: 6) was transferred to Mo Municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

. On 1 January 1964, Mo Municipality (population: 1,658) and Lårdal (population: 1,929) were merged to form a new municipality called Tokke.

Name

The municipality (originally the

) is named after the old '' Laardal'' farm () since the first Lårdal Church was built there. The first element is the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

of the word which means "water" or "river". The last element is which means "

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

" or "dale". Historically, the municipality name was spelled ''Laurdal'' (although the parish name goes back centuries as ''Laugerdal''). On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled ''Laardal'' with the digraph " aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled ''Lårdal'', using the letter å instead.

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning,

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council

The

of Lårdal was made up of 21 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayors () of Lårdal: *1838-1843: Rev. Bendt Wettergren *1844-1845: Knut Saaveson Aakeren *1846-1848: Olav T. Huvestad *1849-1850: Tarjei Mikkelson Mandt *1851-1854: Kristoffer Skjelbreid *1855-1856: Jørgen Espetveit *1857-1866: Nils Laurirz Wiborg *1867-1870: Steinar P. Mandt *1871-1874: Olav L. Omdal *1875-1876: Steinar P. Mandt *1877-1880: Nils P. Bjaaland *1881-1882: Olav E. Sandland *1883-1884: Tjøstolv Mandt *1885-1889: Olav E. Sandland *1890-1891: Jarand O. Reffelbrekk *1892-1893: John H. Ofte *1894-1898: Nils Heggtveit *1899-1916: J.J. Hegna *1917-1919: Nils Heggtveit *1920-1925: J.J. Hegna *1926-1928: Olav G. Sending *1929-1931: J.J. Hegna *1932-1934: Karl Kleve *1935-1941: Håkon Årneshaugen *1941-1945: Olav G. Sending *1945-1963: Håkon Årneshaugen

References