Early History at Hafslund
From Ecclesiastical Agricultural Property to Lucrative Noble Estate
The name Hafslund is first mentioned in a document from 1344, referring not to a single farm, but to a ‘lid’ (district), a land area consisting of several farms that were to provide one man for the leidang (levy).
In 1397, the name Hafslund reappears in connection with the registration of income from two farms owned by the Church, Store and Lille Hafslund. With the farming methods of the time, the land was difficult to cultivate and provided the owner with ordinary ground rent.
Throughout the 1500s, water channels were built and sawmills were constructed all along Sarpsfossen. Water rights to Sarp are mentioned in several probate records, without the name Hafslund being mentioned. By the end of the 1500s, various shareholders had built a total of 17 sawmills on the east side of the waterfall.
In 1594, the two Hafslund farms are mentioned again, located north and south of each other. The Hafslund farms were still small and hardly particularly important or interesting. However, the rights to Sarpsfossen were highly sought after, and the location of the Hafslund farms was favorable.
Around 1600, the nobleman Otte Bildt of Nes acquired most of the sawmills on the Hafslund side, both Hafslund farms, and surrounding farm properties. He erected a manor house in stone where the main building stands today. Otte Bildt applied for and received seat rights from the Crown in 1608. From then on, Hafslund was a main estate with noble status.
His son, Daniel Bildt, styled himself “of Hafslund” and consolidated the last waterfall rights for the estate, but profitability was not particularly good. Even though Hafslund was divided among several heirs when the childless Daniel Bildt of Hafslund died, Hafslund remained a main estate with seat rights, and all parts were eventually bought by the next owner, Werner Nielsen.
The official merchant Werner Nielsen was primarily a businessman, and in partnership with his father-in-law, who owned Borregård, he was to develop Hafslund into the country’s most important timber industry and Southern Norway’s largest estate.
