Roderesch is a village about 1.5 km south of Roden, in the north Dutch municipality of Noordenveld, with about 170 inhabitants. The suffix Esch refers to the geographical term es, so the name means Es van Roden. Until 1998, Roderesch was part of the municipality of Roden.
The first six houses of Roderesch date from 1850 and were inhabited by poor farmers who engaged in the mining of heaths. The village originated around 1900. The building was initially concentrated near the primary school, which was also visited by students from Alteveer and Steenbergen. After the war, a small neighborhood was created around the core.
To the west of the village lies the former Work camp Roden: a former training center from the crisis years. Werkamp Roden was founded on the initiative of the Council of Churches by the Center for Unemployment Care Utrecht in 1934. On April 20, 1936, the then commissioner of the Queen De Vos of Steenwijk opened the complex in the presence of Princess Juliana. It was part of the workforce in the crisis years and, more specifically, aimed at educating young people. These courses could also relate to the exploitation of rough soil, the main task of the Kamp De Fledders, located a few kilometers away. (In Drenthe around 1934, about 6000 unemployed were forced to work at, among other things, mining).
In 1954, the former Werkamp Roden became a youth hostel from the Dutch Youth Hostel and got her current name: de Zwerfsteen. Partly because of the economically bad times of the 80's, the Zwerfsteen became independent in 1985, as the first franchise youth hostel in the Netherlands. Nowadays it is still used as group accommodation and for day recreation.
