Valestrand

Valestrand is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The 59-square-kilometre (23 sq mi) municipality existed from 1868 until its dissolution in 1964. It was located on a peninsula on the southern shore of the Bømlafjorden inside the present-day municipality of Sveio. The administrative centre of Valestrand was the village of Valevåg. The two churches in Valestrand were Valen Chapel and Valestrand Church.^[3]

Valestrand Municipality Valestrand herad
Former municipality
View of the Valestrand Church
Hordaland within Norway
Valestrand within Hordaland
Coordinates: 59°41′58″N 05°28′20″E
Country	Norway
County	Hordaland
District	Sunnhordland
Established	1 January 1868
• Preceded by	Stord Municipality
Disestablished	1 January 1964
• Succeeded by	Sveio Municipality
Administrative centre	Valevåg
Area  (upon dissolution)
• Total	59 km2 (23 sq mi)
Population  (1963)
• Total	1,227
• Density	21/km2 (54/sq mi)
Demonym	Valestrending[1]
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1217[2]
Data from Statistics Norway

History

The municipality of Valestrand was established on 15 May 1868 when the southern district of the large municipality of Stord (south of the Bømlafjorden) was separated from the rest of Stord to become its own municipality. Initially, Valestrand had a population of 900. On 1 April 1870, the Øklandsgrend area (population: 247) of the neighboring municipality of Finnås was transferred to Valestrand. On 1 January 1964, a major municipal merger took place as a result of the Schei Committee. The municipalities of Sveio (population: 1,697) and Valestrand (population: 1,216) were merged with the western part of the municipality of Vikebygd (population: 471) and a small portion of the northern part of the municipality of Skjold (population: 24), both located north and west of the Ålfjorden. The new municipality was called Sveio. The small portion from Skjold municipality was in Rogaland county, and after the merger it switched to Hordaland county.^[4]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Valen farm (Old Norse: Vaðlar) since the first Valestrand Church was built there. The first element is the plural genitive case of vaðill which means "ford" or "shallow water". The last element, strand, was added as a suffix to the farm name. It was derived from the word strǫnd which means "shore" or "beach".^[5]

Government

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.^[6]

Municipal council

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

Valestrand heradsstyre 1960–1963 ^[7]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	2
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	11
Total number of members:		13

Valestrand heradsstyre 1956–1959 ^[8]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	3
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	10
Total number of members:		13

Valestrand heradsstyre 1952–1955 ^[9]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	2
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	10
Total number of members:		12

Valestrand heradsstyre 1948–1951 ^[10]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	4
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	8
Total number of members:		12

Valestrand heradsstyre 1945–1947 ^[11]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	List of workers, fishermen, and small farmholders (Arbeidarar, fiskarar, småbrukarar liste)	3
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	9
Total number of members:		12

Valestrand heradsstyre 1938–1941* ^[12]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	12
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.

Notable people

• Einar Økland, a poet, playwright, essayist and children's writer^[13]
• Fartein Valen, a composer and music theorist^[13]
• Agnes Ravatn, an author, columnist, and journalist
• Ole Bull, a violinist and composer

See also

• List of former municipalities of Norway

References

1. "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet.
2. Bolstad, Erik; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (26 January 2023). "Kommunenummer". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget.
3. Store norske leksikon. "Valestrand – tidligere kommune" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 5 March 2015.
4. Jukvam, Dag (1999). Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå. ISBN 9788253746845.
5. Rygh, Oluf (1910). Norske gaardnavne: Søndre Bergenhus amt (in Norwegian) (11 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. pp. 116 and 83.
6. Hansen, Tore; Vabo, Signy Irene, eds. (20 September 2022). "kommunestyre". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
7. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1959" (PDF). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1960. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
8. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1955" (PDF). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1957. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
9. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1951" (PDF). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1952. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
10. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1947" (PDF). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1948. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
11. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1945" (PDF). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1947. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
12. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1937" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1938. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
13. "Valestrand cultural church". www.visitnorway.com. Innovation Norway. Retrieved 10 July 2015.