Meldal Municipality

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Meldal is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it joined Orkland Municipality. It was part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Meldal. Other villages included Løkken Verk, Bjørnli, Å, and Storås.

At the time of its dissolution in 2020, the Script error: No such module "convert". municipality was the 184th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Meldal Municipality was also the 233rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,905. The municipality's population density was Script error: No such module "convert". and its population had increased by 0.3% over the previous 10-year period.^[1]^[2]

The municipality was most renowned for its mining activities at Løkken Verk, being the birthplace of the Orkla mining company, now Orkla Group. It was also home to the annual Storåsfestivalen music festival.

General information

File:Storaasfestivalen av olahaldorvoll 64.jpg

The area of the Storås Festival in Meldal

The parish of Meldal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1839, the southern district of Meldal (population: 2,368) was separated to form the new Rennebu Municipality. This left Meldal with 3,184 residents.^[3]

On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Sør-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.

On 1 January 2020, the neighboring Agdenes Municipality, Orkdal Municipality, and Meldal Municipality, plus the majority of Snillfjord Municipality were merged to form the new Orkland Municipality.^[4]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named Meldal (Template:Langx) after its location in the Orkdalen valley. The first element is Template:Wikt-lang which means "middle". The last element is Template:Wikt-lang which means "valley" or "dale". Thus the name means "the middle of the valley".^[5] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Meldalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Meldal, removing the definite form ending -en.^[6]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 5 February 1985 and it was in use until 1 January 2020 when the municipality was dissolved. The official blazon is "Gules, an ear of corn in a roundel voided embattled Or" (Template:Langx). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is the top of an ear of corn inside a gear-shaped circular ring. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The design was chosen to symbolize the importance of local industry and agriculture. The arms were designed by Harald Ekseth.^[7]^[8]

Churches

The Church of Norway had two parishes (Script error: No such module "Lang".) within Meldal Municipality. It is part of the Gauldal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros.

**Churches in Meldal Municipality**
Parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Løkken	Løkken Church	Bjørnli	1929
Meldal	Meldal Church	Meldal	1988

Geography

Meldal Municipality was located along the Orkla River in the middle of the Orkdalen valley. The lakes Hostovatnet and Svorksjøen were located along the northern border of the municipality. The highest point in the municipality was the Script error: No such module "convert". tall mountain Resfjellet, near the border with Rindal Municipality.^[9]

There were five municipalities that bordered Meldal: Rindal Municipality to the west, Rennebu Municipality to the south, Midtre Gauldal Municipality and Melhus Municipality to the east, and Orkdal Municipality to the north.

The Løkken Station was the terminal station on the historic Thamshavn Line railway that used to travel through the municipality.

Government

While it existed, Meldal Municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[10] The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Sør-Trøndelag District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of Meldal Municipality is made up of 19 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.