The municipality was most renowned for its mining activities at Løkken Verk, being the birthplace of the Orkla mining company, now Orkla Group. It was also home to the annual Storåsfestivalen music festival.
At the time of its dissolution in 2020, the 613-square-kilometre (237 sq mi) municipality was the 184th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Meldal was also the 233rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,930. The municipality's population density was 6.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (17/sq mi) and its population had increased by 1.5% over the previous decade.[4][5]
On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Sør-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.
On 1 January 2020, the municipalities of Agdenes, Orkdal, and Meldal along with the majority of Snillfjord were merged to form the new municipality of Orkland.[7]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named Meldal (Old Norse: Meðaldalr) after its location in the Orkdalen valley. The first element is meðal which means "middle". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". Thus the name means "the middle of the valley".[8] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Meldalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Meldal, removing the definite form ending -en.[9]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 5 February 1985 and it was in use until 1 January 2020 when the municipality was dissolved. The official blazon is "Gules, an ear of corn in a roundel voided embattledOr" (Norwegian: I rød, et gull kornaks i tannhjul). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is the top of an ear of corn inside a gear-shaped circular ring. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The design was chosen to symbolize the importance of local industry and agriculture. The arms were designed by Harald Ekseth.[10][11]
The municipality of Meldal was located along the Orkla River in the middle of the Orkdalen valley. The lakes Hostovatnet and Svorksjøen were located along the northern border of the municipality.
There were five municipalities that bordered Meldal: Rindal to the west, Rennebu to the south, Midtre Gauldal and Melhus to the east, and Orkdal to the north.
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Meldal is made up of 19 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:
+1.5%
