Skedsmo

Skedsmo is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillestrøm. About one third of the municipal population lives in Lillestrøm. Other important towns are Skedsmokorset, Skjetten and Strømmen. A smaller settlement adjoining Lillestrøm is Kjeller.

The local newspaper is Romerikes Blad (circulation 39,139 in 2004). The paper comes out daily.

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Skedsmo farm (Old Norse: Skeiðsmór), since the first church was built here. The first element is the genitive case of skeið which means "running track for horse racing" and the last element is mór which means "heath" or "moor".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 4 October 1974. The arms show three silver horse heads with waving manes on a red background. The arms are canting from the old Norse word skeiðismór which means a field used for horse racing, hence the waving manes of the horses. The arms were designed by Finn Fagerli from Lillestrøm.