Editing Langesund (section)

==History==
[[File:Langesund church, Bamble, Norway.jpg|thumb|left|View of the Langesund Church]]
Langesund became its own customs center in 1570, and in the 1580s was considered the country's largest export port for timber, with a lot of shipping traffic particularly from Dutch schooners. The Dutch also worked on a large salt factory that King [[Christian IV of Denmark|Christian IV]] had built on Langøya in 1602 to refine imported salt. In the early days, Langesund was one of the most important shipping towns in [[Norway]]. In 1765, the growing village was granted rights as a [[ladested]] (town status). At the end of the 17th century, large shipbuilding was started. As the timber trade fell away, shipbuilding and shipping became the town's main industries. [[Peter Wessel Tordenskiold]] had one of his ships built in Langesund, the ''Løvendals Gallej''. It was known as Longsound in English during the 1800s.

===Name===
The town is ''Langesund'' which means "the long strait". The first element is {{wikt-lang|no|lang}} which means "long". The last element is {{wikt-lang|no|sund}} which means "[[strait]]" or "[[Sound (geography)|sound]]".

===Municipal self-government (1838–1964)===
The town of Langesund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see [[formannskapsdistrikt]] law). On 1 January 1878, the island of Langøya, just off shore from the town (population: 22) was transferred from the neighboring rural municipality of [[Bamble]] to the town of Langesund. In 1949, the town was enlarged by [[Municipal annexation|annexing]] an adjacent area of [[Bamble Municipality]] (population: 127). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the [[Schei Committee]]. On 1 January 1964, the town of Langesund (population: 2,281) was merged with the nearby town of [[Stathelle]] (population: 724) and the surrounding rural municipality of [[Bamble]] (population: 5,237) to form a new, larger [[Bamble Municipality]].<ref name="Dag">{{Cite book |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |year=1999 |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |language=no |isbn=9788253746845}}</ref>

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for [[primary education]] (through 10th grade), outpatient [[Health care|health services]], [[old age|senior citizen]] services, [[unemployment]], [[Social work|social services]], [[zoning]], [[economic development]], and municipal [[road]]s. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a [[Municipal council (Norway)|municipal council]] of [[Direct election|directly elected]] representatives. The [[mayor]] was [[Indirect election|indirectly elected]] by a vote of the municipal council.<ref name="ks">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=kommunestyre |encyclopedia=[[Store norske leksikon]] |publisher=[[Kunnskapsforlaget]] |url=https://snl.no/kommunestyre |date=2022-09-20 |editor-last=Hansen |editor-first=Tore |editor2-last=Vabo |editor2-first=Signy Irene |language=no |access-date=2023-08-03}}</ref> 

====Municipal council====
The [[Municipal council (Norway)|municipal council]] {{lang|no|(Bystyre)}} of Langesund was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political [[Political party|party]]. 
{{div col}}
{{Kommunestyre table
|name                      = Langesund
|city                      = yes
|start                     = 1960
|end                       = 1963
|reference                 = <ref>{{Cite web |date=1960 |title=Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1959 |url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_xii_022.pdf |publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå |location=Oslo, Norge |language=Norwegian }}</ref>
|Total                     = 21
|Arbeiderpartiet           = 11
|Høyre                     = 3
|Kristelig_Folkeparti      = 2
|Venstre                   = 5
|}}
{{Kommunestyre table
|name                      = Langesund
|city                      = yes
|start                     = 1956
|end                       = 1959
|reference                 = <ref>{{Cite web |date=1957 |title=Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1955 |url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_xi_252.pdf |publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå |location=Oslo, Norge |language=Norwegian }}</ref>
|collapsed                 = yes
|Total                     = 21
|Arbeiderpartiet           = 12
|Kristelig_Folkeparti      = 2
|Venstre                   = 4
|Local_Lists               = 3
|}}
{{Kommunestyre table
|name                      = Langesund
|city                      = yes
|start                     = 1952
|end                       = 1955
|reference                 = <ref>{{Cite web |date=1952 |title=Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1951 |url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_xi_120.pdf |publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå |location=Oslo |language=Norwegian }}</ref>
|collapsed                 = yes
|Total                     = 20
|Arbeiderpartiet           = 10
|Kristelig_Folkeparti      = 2
|Venstre                   = 5
|Local_Lists               = 3
|}}
{{Kommunestyre table
|name                      = Langesund
|city                      = yes
|start                     = 1948
|end                       = 1951
|reference                 = <ref>{{Cite web |date=1948 |title=Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1947 |url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_x_165.pdf |publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå |location=Oslo |language=Norwegian }}</ref>
|collapsed                 = yes
|Total                     = 20
|Arbeiderpartiet           = 8
|NKP                       = 1
|Kristelig_Folkeparti      = 2
|Venstre                   = 6
|Borgerlige_Felleslister   = 3
|}}
{{Kommunestyre table
|name                      = Langesund
|city                      = yes
|start                     = 1945
|end                       = 1947
|reference                 = <ref>{{Cite web |date=1947 |title=Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1945 |url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_x_133.pdf |publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå |location=Oslo |language=Norwegian }}</ref>
|collapsed                 = yes
|Total                     = 20
|Arbeiderpartiet           = 8
|NKP                       = 1
|Kristelig_Folkeparti      = 2
|Venstre                   = 5
|Local_Lists               = 4
|}}
{{Kommunestyre table
|name                      = Langesund
|city                      = yes
|start                     = 1938
|end                       = 1941* 
|reference                 = <ref>{{Cite web |date=1938 |title=Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1937 |url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_ix_133.pdf |publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå |location=Oslo |language=Norwegian }}</ref>
|collapsed                 = yes
|Total                     = 20
|Venstre                   = 5
|Borgerlige_Felleslister   = 5
|Arbeiderpartiet           = 10
|}}
{{Kommunestyre table
|name                      = Langesund
|city                      = yes
|start                     = 1935
|end                       = 1937 
|reference                 = <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_ix_057.pdf |title=Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1934 |date=1935 |publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå |location=Oslo, Norge |language=Norwegian }}</ref>
|collapsed                 = yes
|Total                     = 20
|Venstre                   = 6
|Borgerlige_Felleslister   = 5
|Arbeiderpartiet           = 9 
|}}
{{div col end}}