Lånke

Former municipality in Norway
the village

Lånke was a former municipality in the old Nord Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1902 until its dissolution in 1962. The municipality was located south of the Stjørdalselva river in what is now the south central part of Stjørdal municipality in Trøndelag county. The administrative centre was located in the village of Hell. The famous Hell Station in the village of Hell is situated in the westernmost part of Lånke. There are two churches in Lånke: Lånke Church and Elvran Chapel. Historically, this parish was also known as Leksdal. Lånke is an area dominated by agriculture and forests.

The municipality of Laanke was created on 1 January 1902 when the old municipality of Nedre Stjørdal was split into three new municipalities: Laanke (population: 1,449), Stjørdal (population: 3,158), and Skatval (population: 2,125). On 1 January 1914 the small Jøssås area of southwestern Laanke (population: 38) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Malvik which at that time was in the neighboring county of Sør Trøndelag. The spelling of the municipality was later changed to Lånke. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, the neighboring municipalities of Lånke (population: 1,967), Stjørdal (population: 6,204), Hegra (population: 2,704), and Skatval (population: 1,944) merged to form a new, larger municipality of Stjørdal.

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Laanke farm since the first Lånke Church was built there. The name comes from the genitive case of the Old Norse word langr which means "long", perhaps referring to the long flat area along the river Stjørdalselva. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Laanke with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Lånke, using the letter å was instead.

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elected a mayor.

The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Lånke was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: