People have cultivated the land here for centuries. Traces from the Iron Age exist in the form of burial mounds. Even the village names indicate that this is a parish with roots from before the 12th century. It is primarily the suffix "sta" in the place names that is based on a "Proto-Norse" tradition.
During the Middle Ages, the Saint Olaf's Way passed by here, where pilgrims walked between Sundsvall and Trondheim.
Until the 14th century, each village had self-governance through assemblies. The law that applied to this region was the Hälsingelagen with its village law codes.
The Fränsta area, located north of Lake Torp, constitutes the parish's central locality and has over the years maintained its position as a trading centre for the area. In documents from 1553, the village name is spelt "frensta," and the community developed into a trade centre only in the latter half of the 19th century. Along the main street that leads through the community, one can still discern the original centre with commercial buildings erected at the turn of the century.
Ljungaverk, west of Fränsta, also has a long history as agricultural land but has become especially known over the past hundred years as one of the major industrial towns in the Swedish chemical industry. Many consider this place the cradle of the Swedish chemical industry.
Torpshammar also has a history as an industrial town. As early as 1800, an ironworks was established here, which in 1872 transitioned to a pulp mill, finally ceasing operations in 1940.
The railway and logging enabled large forest areas to be exploited, making the parish attractive to people from coastal cities. This has left its mark on the building stock, with a large number of turn-of-the-century wooden houses featuring towers and façades divided by mouldings, where not only merchants were builders, but many farmers also took the opportunity to upgrade their buildings according to the spirit of the times. The parish reached its population peak in the 1920s with more than 10,000 inhabitants, compared to today's approximately 4,000.