Jøssund is a former municipality in the old Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1896 until its dissolution in 1964. The 79-square-kilometre (31 sq mi) municipality encompassed northern coastal area of the present-day municipality of Ørland in Trøndelag county. The main church for Jøssund was Jøssund Church in the village of Jøssund which was the administrative centre of the municipality. Other villages in Jøssund included Lysøysundet and Vallersund.

History

The municipality of Jøssund was established on 1 January 1896 when it was split off from the large municipality of Aafjord. Initially, Jøssund had a population of 1,529.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Jøssund (population: 1,917) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Bjugn (population: 1,240), Nes (population: 1,107), and the northern part of Stjørna (population: 676) to form a new, larger municipality of Bjugn.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Jøssund farm (Old Norse: Mjórsund). The first element comes from the word mjór which means "narrow" or "thin". The old name did originally start with an "m", but over time the initial letter disappeared from the spelling and pronunciation (sometime before the early 16th century). The last element is sund which means "sound" or "strait". Historically, the name's spelling has varied. In the 1500s and 1600s it was spelled Jußund using the letter ß, and by the 1700s, it was written in its current form.

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elected a mayor.

Mayors

The mayors of Jøssund:

Municipal council

The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Jøssund was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

See also

• List of former municipalities of Norway