Helle is a village in Kragerø Municipality in

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

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 village is located on the north shores of Hellefjorden about northeast of the town of Kragerø. The village of Vadfoss is located immediately west of Helle. The village of Helle includes the neighborhoods of Nordbø, Sollia, Måneliheia, and Skarbo. There are several small lakes in the hills above Helle, including Upper and Lower Strandtjenn, Langtjenn, Bastautjenn, Årømyrtjenna, and Svarttjenn. The villages of Vadfoss and Helle have grown together in

conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...

, so

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All rele ...

groups them together as one large urban village called Vadfoss/Helle. The village area of Vadfoss/Helle has a population (2022) of 1,516 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of . The village is connected to the rest of Norway via road by

Norwegian county road A Norwegian county road ( or ) is a highway in Norway owned and maintained by the local county municipality. Some of the roads have road signs. The signs are white with black numbers. History In 1931, a system of national roads ''(Riksvei)'', ...

s 363 and 210, and via

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

by Nettbuss Sør Route 459 and Drangedal Bilruter Route 609. The nearest highway is the

European route E18 European route E18 runs between Craigavon, County Armagh, Craigavon in Northern Ireland and Saint Petersburg in Russia, passing through Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is about in length. Although the designation implies the ...

, which passes through Kil, about 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 logging, 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 ...

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 ...

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 Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Prestestranda. Other villages in Drangedal include Bø i Tørdal, ...

just north of the E18 highway. 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 o ...

, with the exception of a few businesses on Helleveien. In the Sollia neighborhood, there is a small wooden church, Helle Church, 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 cen ...

, a kitchen, multiple meeting rooms, and a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

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 letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

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, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

field.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=September 2023 Kragerø Villages in Telemark