Torvastad

Torvastad is the area making up the northern part of the island and municipality of Karmøy, Rogaland county, Norway. Until 1965, Torvastad was a separate municipality that included the island of Vibrandsøy.

The name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Torvastad (Norse Torfastaðir), since the first church was built there. The first element is the genitive form of the male name Torfi, the last element is staðir 'farm'.

History

The parish of Torvestad was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 February 1855 the district Haugesund was separated from Torvastad to form a municipality of its own. The split left Torvastad with 3,242 inhabitants. Further division took place when Skåre broke out on 1 November 1881 and Utsira followed on 1 July 1924. At that time Torvastad had a population of 2,187.

At 1. January 2009 Torvastad-area(north-karmøy) had 3343 inhabitants, this includes: Storesund, Håland, Hauge and Bø. Source: http://www.karmoy.kommune.no/om-kommunen/demografi

On 1 January 1965 the district Vibrandsøy with 70 inhabitants were incorporated into Haugesund. The rest of Torvastad, with 3,783 inhabitants, was merged with Avaldsnes, Kopervik, Skudenes, Skudeneshavn, Stangaland and Åkra to form the new municipality Karmøy.

References