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Vardal is a former municipality in the old Oppland county, Norway. The 263-square-kilometre (102 sq mi) municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. The area is now divided between Gjøvik Municipality and Vestre Toten Municipality in the traditional district of Vestoppland. The administrative centre was the village of Vardal.[2]

Vardal herred
Former municipality
Old farmhouse in Vardal
Oppland within Norway
Vardal within Oppland
Coordinates: 60°48′58″N 10°31′28″E
Country	Norway
County	Oppland
District	Vestoppland
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Disestablished	1 Jan 1964
• Succeeded by	Vestre Toten and Gjøvik municipalities
Administrative centre	Vardal
Area  (upon dissolution)
• Total	263 km2 (102 sq mi)
Population  (1964)
• Total	9,679
• Density	37/km2 (95/sq mi)
Demonyms	Vardøl Vardøling[1]
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0527
Data from Statistics Norway

History

The prestegjeld of Vardal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). According to the 1835 census the parish had a population of 2,921 shortly before it became a municipality.[3] On 1 January 1861 the town of Gjøvik (population: 626) was separated from Vardal to constitute a separate municipality, leaving Vardal with a population of 4,114. On 1 January 1896, a small area of Østre Toten Municipality (population: 49) was transferred into Vardal. On 1 January 1900, an unpopulated area of Søndre Land Municipality was transferred to Vardal.[4]

During the 20th century, the town of Gjøvik was growing and twice the town annexed parts of Vardal. On 1 July 1921, an area with 723 residents was taken from Vardal and added to Gjøvik. Then again on 1 July 1955, another area (population: 1,372) was transferred from Vardal to Gjøvik. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Vardal Municipality was dissolved and its lands and people were transferred to neighboring municipalities:[4]

• the Sørligrenda area (population: 87) was merged with Vestre Toten Municipality (population: 9,113), Eina Municipality (population: 1,591), and a small part of Gran Municipality (population: 12) to form a new Vestre Toten Municipality.
• the rest of Vardal (population: 9,612) was merged with the town of Gjøvik (population: 8,251), Snertingdal Municipality (population: 2,471), and Biri Municipality (population: 3,274) to form a new Gjøvik Municipality.

Name

The municipality was named Vardal after the valley in which it is located. The Old Norse form of the name was Vardalr. The first element is probably an old river name which could possibly come from the word ver which means "quiet" or "calm". The last element is dalr which means "dale" or "valley".[5][2]

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Vardal, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality was governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elected a mayor.[6]

Municipal council

The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Vardal was made up of 29 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Mayor

The mayors of Vardal:[13]

See also

• List of former municipalities of Norway

References

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