Øvrebø (municipality)
Øvrebø is a former municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. The municipality existed twice during the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally, from 1838 until 1865, the 398-square-kilometre (154 sq mi) municipality encompassed roughly the same boundaries as the present-day municipality of Vennesla. The second iteration of the municipality was only 109 square kilometres (42 sq mi) and it corresponded to the central part of present-day Vennesla. The municipal centre was the village of Skarpengland. The small village of Øvrebø is located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of Skarpengland, and this is where the Øvrebø Church is located.[1]
Øvrebø herred | |
|---|---|
 View of the local Øvrebø Church | |
  Øvrebø herred Location of the municipality  Øvrebø herred Øvrebø herred (Norway) | |
| Coordinates: 58°17′29″N 07°46′42″E | |
| Country | Norway |
| Region | Southern Norway |
| County | Vest-Agder |
| District | Sørlandet |
| Municipality ID | NO-1016 |
| Adm. Center | Skarpengland |
| Area | |
| • Total | 109 km2 (42 sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Created as | Formannskapsdistrikt in 1838 |
| Split into | Øvrebø og Hægeland and Vennesla in 1865 |
| Created from | Øvrebø og Hægeland in 1896 |
| Merged into | Vennesla in 1964 |
History
The parish of Øvrebø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). It existed as a municipality until 1865, when it was dissolved and split into two: the southern part of the municipality (population: 1,103) became the new municipality of Vennesla and the remainder of the municipality became Øvrebø og Hægeland (population: 1,829). On 1 July 1896 the municipality of Øvrebø was re-created when the municipality of Øvrebø og Hægeland was divided into two separate municipalities: Øvrebø (population: 888) and Hægeland (population: 843).
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the Eikeland area (population: 39) of Øvrebø was transferred to neighboring Songdalen municipality, while the rest of Øvrebø (population: 925) was merged with Hægeland and Vennesla to form a new, larger municipality of Vennesla.[2]
Name
Øvrebø municipality was named after the old Øvrebø farm (Old Norse: Øfribœr), since the first Øvrebø Church was built there. The first part of the name means "upper" and second part of the name is identical with the word bœr which means "farm" and it is cognate with the Dutch language word "boer" which means "farmer". The name therefore means "the upper farm".[3]
References
- Store norske leksikon. "Øvrebø – tidligere kommune" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå. Cite journal requires
|journal=(help) - Rygh, Oluf (1912). Norske gaardnavne: Lister og Mandals amt (in Norwegian) (9 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 36.