Nottveit lies at the entrance to Mostraumen. In the Middle Ages Nottveit belonged to Munkeliv monastery. From the 1660s the farm came into private hands, and De fine family owned most of the holdings until late in the 1700s. In the property draft from 1723 it states about this farm: “…Mountain pasture ¼ Mile from the farm, fuel and wood for domestic needs, 1 flood mill, lies by the sea 51/2 miles from Bergen, standard agriculture, heavily worked and lies icebound all winter. Exists on animal husbandry and sale of firewood”. All the holders at Nottveit were independent farmers early in the 1700s. The farmers at Nottveit were in fact amongst the first to own their own farms in Modalen. The small power station that still stands there today made these farms self-sufficient with electric power until 1958.
Nottveitgardane ved Mofjorden (Kjell Andresen)
The Nottveit farms are situated without road access at Mofjorden.
The Nottveit farms are situated without road access at Mofjorden. Image from 1990 (Kjell Andresen)
Nottveit
In one of the frame-built haysheds at Nottveit, at holding No. 3, we discover that several of the staves have a medieval look, with large dimensions and carefully rounded edges. According to tradition, it was the farms Nottveit and Mostraumen that supplied the timber for the stave church at Mo, and it is not unlikely that these farms received the old timber in return when the new church was erected there in 1593.