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 municipality encompassed roughly the same boundaries as the present-day municipality of Vennesla. The second iteration of the municipality was only 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 west of Skarpengland, and this is where the Øvrebø Church is located.

History

The parish of Øvrebø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. It existed as a municipality until 1865, when it was dissolved and split into two: the southern part of the municipality became the new municipality of Vennesla and the remainder of the municipality became Øvrebø og Hægeland. 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 and Hægeland.
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 of Øvrebø was transferred to neighboring Songdalen municipality, while the rest of Øvrebø was merged with Hægeland and Vennesla to form a new, larger municipality of Vennesla.

Name

Øvrebø municipality was named after the old Øvrebø farm, 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".