Owners of the farm

The first named owner of Stokke Nedre we are familiar with is Torgeir Stokke, mentioned in writings from 1612. The farm remained in the Stokke family for five generations until 1779. After that it took 14 years with two other owners before the Brøcher family came to the farm in 1793.

Lars Brøcher (1752-1823) bought the farm in 1793 for 1270 riksdaler. 1 riksdaler corresponded to NOK 3.20 at that time, and in 2021 this corresponded to NOK 16.3 million. In 1801 he had 6 workers and 3 homesteads belonging to the farm, and the herd consisted of 3 horses, 13 cows and 13 sheeps.

Lars married Magdalene Margrete Kjøning from Stange and they had 6 children. Lars Brøcher was a committed officer. In 1793 he was rittmester and company commander in Biri and Vardalske company and later lieutenant colonel and commander in the Opland Dragon Regiment. Father Lars and eldest son Henrik Christian were very active in the development of the farm, and they succeeded. This despite bad times in Norway, the Napoleonic Wars that ravaged Europe and the Swedish-Norwegian liberation war in 1814.

The Brøcher family built the main building on the farm, and the large residential house «Brøcher building». They were also responsible for the construction of the large storage cage, which was used for grain storage. They also built a mill and sawmill, and in addition they had the finances to establish a larger garden on the farm.

On 17 January 1849, the farm was sold to Peder Olsen Undset from Skonnord in Snertingdalen. He later sold it to land trader Peder Lie, who in turn sold to cargo dealer Lars Jahr. He unfortunately went bankrupt in 1866.

When Nicolai Forseth bought the farm in 1866, there were no livestock or tools left due to the bankruptcy. He had to by everything. Nicolai started up the farming, established about 100 new acres of cultivated land, dug the fields and drove away several thousand loads of stone. He also built a summer farm, a dairy, new mills and a sawmill. In total 7 homesteads belonged to the farm when Nicolai took over.

Nicolai Forseth was an engineer from Carlsruhe University College, Baden in Germany, and worked at Hadeland Glassverk and later Biri Glassverk. From 1882 to 1889 he was mayor of Vardal municipality. He was also a member of the county council and conciliation commissioner. He met in the Storting (Parliament) as the first deputy in 1889 – 1894.

Nicolai transferred the farm to his son Hans Forseth in 1917. Hans Forseth died in 1956, and had then leased out the farm from 1947. From 1950 to 1972, Per Schiager was a tenant on the farm, while the widow Karen Forseth still lived in the main house.

Torolf Larsen took over the lease and bought the farm in 1977, and his daughter Anne Kari and her husband Helge Bryhni took over in 1991. Anne Kari and Helge cultivated a new 30 acres, built irrigation systems and grain drying. They also did a great job in renovating the main house and the large storage cage. The wood chip heating plant that they built still heats up many of the houses on the farm.
Mina Fagerli and Hans Morten Drengsrud ran the farm from 2011 to 2017, before selling it to Gjøvik municipality. The municipality sold it on in 2018 to the current owners, farmers and hosts, Marit Helen Øwre Klomstad and Halvor Johansen.

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