Bjørsvik in Osterfjorden is an industrial settlement that has developed around a single industry in the 1800s. Written sources tell us that in 1673 there was a sash saw in the river that runs between the farms Bjørsvik and Skår. A sawmill was in operation here up until the 1870s.
Waterpower, a good harbour and short distance to Bergen contributed to Bergen merchants setting up a rented mill here as early as the 1850s. In 1861 Fredrik Ludvig Konow bought the water rights and erected three different mills, but it was only when Christian Irgens, who bought the mill works in 1879, that Bjørsvik became a modern commercial mill. The new rye mill was ready in 1884, with steel cylinders that replaced the old millstones and a transport belt for the grain.
Towards the end of the 1800s Bjørsvik was an industrial settlement with store, bakery and houses for the workers. In 1900 the activity was expanded with a new, large mill. This building, which is still intact externally, is 22m high over 7 storeys – probably one of the highest wooden buildings in North Europe. The cannery, which took over after the end of the milling business, which came to an end in 1939, was closed down in the 1980s.
