Map of the Vardal area before 1964View of Vardal Church
The prestegjeld of Vardal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). According to the 1835 census the parish had a population of 2,921 shortly before it became a municipality.[4] On 1 January 1861 the town of Gjøvik (population: 626) was separated from Vardal to constitute a separate municipality, leaving Vardal with a population of 4,114. On 1 January 1896, a small area of Østre Toten Municipality (population: 49) was transferred into Vardal. On 1 January 1900, an unpopulated area of Søndre Land Municipality was transferred to Vardal.[5]
During the 20th century, the town of Gjøvik was growing and twice the town annexed parts of Vardal. On 1 July 1921, an area with 723 residents was taken from Vardal and added to Gjøvik. Then again on 1 July 1955, another area (population: 1,372) was transferred from Vardal to Gjøvik. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Vardal Municipality was dissolved and its lands and people were transferred to neighboring municipalities:[5]
The municipality is named after the Vardal valley (Old Norse: Vardalr) since the valley was located in the municipality. The first element is probably from the old name for a local river. the river name comes from the word ver which means "quiet" or "calm". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale".[6][3]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Vardal was made up of 29 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: