Heidal Municipality

Heidal is a former municipality in the old Oppland county, Norway. The 349-square-kilometre (135 sq mi) municipality existed from 1908 until its dissolution in 1965. The former municipality is now part of the present-day Sel Municipality in Innlandet county. The administrative centre of the old municipality was the village of Bjølstad where the Heidal Church is located. The municipality encompassed the whole Heidal valley area.^[5]

Heidal Municipality Heidal herad
Former municipality
Hedalen herred  (historic name)
View of the Heidal valley
Oppland within Norway
Heidal within Oppland
Coordinates: 61°45′12″N 9°18′05″E
Country	Norway
County	Oppland
District	Gudbrandsdalen
Established	1 Jan 1908
• Preceded by	Vågå Municipality
Disestablished	1 Jan 1965
• Succeeded by	Sel Municipality
Administrative centre	Bjølstad
Area  (upon dissolution)
• Total	349 km2 (135 sq mi)
Population  (1965)
• Total	1,731
• Density	5.0/km2 (13/sq mi)
Demonym	Heidøl[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk[3]
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0516[4]
Data from Statistics Norway

History

View of Bjølstad in Heidal (c. 1935)

View of the Heidal Church

The municipality of Heidal (originally spelled Hedalen) was established on 1 January 1908. On that date, the large Vågå Municipality was divided into three parts: the northeast part became Sel Municipality (population: 2,287), the southeast part became Heidal Municipality (population: 1,241), and the western part remained as Vågå Municipality (population: 2,953).^[6]

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the municipality of Heidal (population: 1,731) was dissolved and it was merged with the municipality of Sel (population: 3,687) plus the Tolstadåsen area of Vågå (population: 35) and the Sjoa area of Nord-Fron (population: 413) to form a new, larger Sel Municipality.^[6]

Name

The municipality is named after the Heidal valley (Old Norse: Hæydalr) since the first Heidal Church was built there. The meaning of the first element is uncertain. It is possible that it comes from the old name for the local river Sjoa. The old river name was likely Hjó which is identical to the word hjó which is the first and third person indicative case of the word hǫggva which means "to hew" or "to chop". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale".^[7][5] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Hedalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Heidal, adding an "i" and removing the definite form ending -en.^[8]

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[9]

Mayors

The mayors of Heidal:^[10]

• 1908-1910: Jørgen Nielsen
• 1911-1925: Ivar Dahle
• 1926-1928: Sverre Glad
• 1929-1937: Ivar Dahle
• 1938-1940: Ola O. Hjellet (Ap)
• 1941-1945: Thor Tofte (NS)
• 1945-1959: Ola O. Hjellet (Ap)
• 1960-1964: Olav Steinfinsbø

Municipal council

The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Heidal was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Heidal herredsstyre 1964 ^[11]  

Party name (in Norwegian)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)	10
	Centre Party (Senterpartiet)	3
Total number of members:		13
Note: On 1 January 1965, Heidal became part of Sel Municipality.

Heidal herredsstyre 1960–1963 ^[12]  

Party name (in Norwegian)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)	7
	Centre Party (Senterpartiet)	3
	List of workers, fishermen, and small farmholders (Arbeidere, fiskere, småbrukere liste)	3
Total number of members:		13

Heidal herredsstyre 1956–1959 ^[13]  

Party name (in Norwegian)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)	8
	Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet)	3
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	2
Total number of members:		13

Heidal herredsstyre 1952–1955 ^[14]  

Party name (in Norwegian)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)	6
	Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet)	2
	List of workers, fishermen, and small farmholders (Arbeidere, fiskere, småbrukere liste)	4
Total number of members:		12

Heidal herredsstyre 1948–1951 ^[15]  

Party name (in Norwegian)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)	6
	Communist Party (Kommunistiske Parti)	1
	Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet)	3
	List of workers, fishermen, and small farmholders (Arbeidere, fiskere, småbrukere liste)	2
Total number of members:		12

Heidal herredsstyre 1945–1947 ^[16]  

Party name (in Norwegian)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)	7
	List of workers, fishermen, and small farmholders (Arbeidere, fiskere, småbrukere liste)	2
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	3
Total number of members:		12

Heidal herredsstyre 1938–1941* ^[17]  

Party name (in Norwegian)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet)	8
	Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet)	1
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	3
Total number of members:		12
Note: Due to the German occupation of Norway during World War II, no elections were held for new municipal councils until after the war ended in 1945.

See also

• List of former municipalities of Norway

References

1. "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet.
2. "Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.
3. "Norsk Lovtidende. 2den Afdeling. 1932. Samling af Love, Resolutioner m.m". Norsk Lovtidend (in Norwegian). Oslo, Norway: Grøndahl og Søns Boktrykkeri: 453–471. 1932.
4. Bolstad, Erik; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (26 January 2023). "Kommunenummer". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget.
5. Mæhlum, Lars, ed. (25 January 2022). "Heidal". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
6. Jukvam, Dag (1999). Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå. ISBN 9788253746845.
7. Rygh, Oluf (1900). Norske gaardnavne: Kristians amt (første halvdel) (in Norwegian) (4-1 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 83.
8. "Norsk Lovtidende. 2den Afdeling. 1917. Samling af Love, Resolutioner m.m". Norsk Lovtidend (in Norwegian). Kristiania, Norge: Grøndahl og Søns Boktrykkeri: 1057–1065. 1917.
9. Hansen, Tore; Vabo, Signy Irene, eds. (20 September 2022). "kommunestyre". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
10. Prestgard, Semon (1996). Heidal kommune 1908-1965 (in Norwegian). Heidal: Heidalturist. p. 59.
11. "Kommunevalgene 1963" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1964.
12. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1959" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1960.
13. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1955" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1957.
14. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1951" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1952.
15. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1947" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1948.
16. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1945" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1947.
17. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1937" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1938.