The parish of Vikedal was created as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1923, the 290-square-kilometre (110 sq mi) municipality was divided in three. The northwestern part became the 66-square-kilometre (25 sq mi) municipality of Sandeid (population: 558), the central part remained as the 134-square-kilometre (52 sq mi) municipality of Vikedal (population: 924), and the southeastern part became the 90-square-kilometre (35 sq mi) municipality of Imsland (population: 604).[2][4]
On 1 January 1965, a major municipal reform took place resulting from the recommendations of the Schei Committee. The municipality of Vikedal was dissolved on that date and it was split up among two municipalities. The Hapnes and Dokskar farms (population: 2) were merged into the neighboring municipality of Tysvær to the southwest. The rest of Vikedal (population: 978) was merged with the municipality of Sandeid and parts of the municipalities of Imsland, Vats and Skjold to form the new municipality called Vindafjord.[4]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Vikedal farm (Old Norse: Víkadalr) since the first Vikedal Church was built there. The first element is the plural genitive case of vík which means "bay" or "cove". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The farm is located at the mouth of the main river that runs through the valley where it flows out into a bay along the fjord.[5]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Vikedal was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:
^ abHelland, Amund (1888). "Vikedal herred". XI Stavanger amt. Norges land og folk (in Norwegian). Kristiania, Norway: H. Aschehoug & Company. p. 340. Retrieved 3 July 2022.