# Gransherad

Gransherad is a former municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The 417-square-kilometre (161 sq mi) municipality existed from 1860 until its dissolution in 1964. The area is now part of Notodden Municipality (in Telemark) and Kongsberg Municipality (in Buskerud). The administrative centre was the village of Gransherad where Gransherad Church is located.

## History

Grandsherred (later spelled Gransherad) was established as a municipality in 1860 after the parish of Hovin (population: 815) in southeastern Tinn Municipality and the parish of Grandsherred (population: 1,310) in western Hjartdal Municipality were merged to form the new municipality. On 1 January 1886, the growing municipality was divided based on its "old" borders, with the old parish of Hovin (population: 885) becoming its own municipality. This left the remainder of Gransherad with a population of 1,393 residents in the now-smaller municipality.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the upper Jondalen valley area (population: 132) of eastern Gransherad was transferred to the neighboring Kongsberg Municipality (in Buskerud county). Also on the same date, Gransherad municipality was dissolved and the following areas were merged to form a new, larger Notodden Municipality:
* the rest of Gransherad Municipality (population: 1,115)
* all of Heddal Municipality (population: 4,844)
* the Rudsgrendi area of Hovin Municipality (population: 21)
* the town of Notodden (population: 7,523)

### Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after an old name for the area (Old Norse: Grandalsherað). The first element of the genitive case of the name Grandalr, an old name for a local valley and/or farm area. The first part of this is derived from the word grǫn which means "spruce" and the last part of this is identical to the word dalr which means "valley" or "dale".The last element of the word is herað which means "rural district". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Gransherred. In 1867, the spelling was changed to Grandsherred. This was short-lived, however, because in 1888, the spelling was changed back to Gransherred. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Gransherad, using the Nynorsk spelling instead of the Bokmål spelling.

## 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.

### Municipal council

The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Gransherad was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.
Gransherad herredsstyre 1960–1963 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 14 |
| | Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgerlige Felleslister) | 7 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 21 |
Gransherad herredsstyre 1956–1959 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 13 |
| | Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgerlige Felleslister) | 8 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 21 |
Gransherad herredsstyre 1952–1955 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 13 |
| | Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgerlige Felleslister) | 7 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 20 |
Gransherad herredsstyre 1948–1951 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 11 |
| | Communist Party (Kommunistiske Parti) | 2 |
| | Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgerlige Felleslister) | 7 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 20 |
Gransherad herredsstyre 1945–1947 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 11 |
| | Communist Party (Kommunistiske Parti) | 3 |
| | Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet) | 3 |
| | Joint list of the Liberal Party (Venstre) and the Radical People's Party (Radikale Folkepartiet) | 3 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 20 |
Gransherad herredsstyre 1938–1941* :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 11 |
| | Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgerlige Felleslister) | 9 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 20 |
| 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

* Klaus Egge, a composer who was born in Gransherad