About Rolde

Rolde is an es village (esdorp) on the Rolderrug ridge, in the middle of Drenthe, on the N33 between Assen and Gieten. On 1 January 2023 it had 3,710 inhabitants. The name first appears in 1232, as Rotlo, which may mean ‘red wood’ or ‘cleared wood’.

A village around brinks

Rolde is laid out like the old es villages of Drenthe: around brinks, open village greens, with the shared arable field, the es, beside it. The Jacobuskerk stands on the Kerkbrink, and the corn mill on the Grote Brink. The millwright Hunse from Assen built it in 1873, after the previous mill had burnt down in 1872. Volunteer millers still keep it turning and grinding.

Where Drenthe held court

Drenthe was once divided into six judicial districts, the dingspelen, and Rolde was the centre of the Rolderdingspel. The Etstoel, the highest court of Drenthe, met three times a year: twice in Rolde and once in Anloo. Each dingspel sent four judges, known as etten. From 1428 the sessions in Rolde were held in the Jacobuskerk, until the court moved to Assen in 1688.

The Gothic church was built between 1399 and 1428. Its tower was a landmark for travellers on their way to Groningen, and the old cart tracks on the Balloërveld still point towards it.

The coat of arms of Rolde

On 28 November 1922 the municipality of Rolde received its own coat of arms: a gold shield with a red band down the middle, bearing a silver sword and a small silver cross. On either side of the band are two red right hands with two fingers raised, as when swearing an oath.

The coat of arms refers to the Etstoel. The sword and the cross stand for justice, and the four hands for the four etten that Rolde sent to the court sessions: two from the nobility and two from the eigengeërfden, the farmers who owned their own land.

In 1950 a crown was added, along with two figures holding the shield. They are two etten as well: on the left a nobleman with a rapier and a hat with ostrich feathers, on the right a farmer with a scroll in his hand. On 6 December 1950 this coat of arms was granted to the municipality.

The flag and the logo

On 9 February 1962 the council also adopted a flag, designed by G.A. Bontekoe: a yellow and a red band, with the cross on the yellow and the sword on the red. When Rolde was merged into Aa en Hunze in 1998, the coat of arms and the flag went out of use. The coat of arms of Aa en Hunze contains nothing from Rolde’s.

The shield lives on in the Rolde.nl logo: a modern version of the coat of arms, with the sword, the cross and the four hands.

From the municipality of Rolde to Aa en Hunze

Until 1998 Rolde was the seat of a municipality of its own. The municipality also included the villages of Grolloo, Balloo, Schoonloo and Amen, and the hamlets of Ekehaar, Nijlande, Deurze, Geelbroek, Marwijksoord, Papenvoort, Nooitgedacht, Eleveld and Eldersloo.

Rolde has had three town halls. The first stood at Hoofdstraat 25, at the junction with Gieterstraat and Grolloërstraat, in a building that Sicco Tjassens built in 1797. In 1918 the municipal administration moved to a new town hall at Hoofdstraat 11, designed by the architect J. Neisingh from Assen. From 1974 to 1998 the municipality was based at Grote Brink 3, in the former junior agricultural school dating from 1952.

In 1998 Rolde was merged with Anloo, Gasselte and Gieten into the new municipality of Aa en Hunze, which has its town hall in Gieten. The town hall at Hoofdstraat 11 is now a home with office space and still stands almost intact, with the small octagonal tower on its roof.

The station

From 1905 to 1947 Rolde had a station on the railway line from Assen to Stadskanaal, built by the Noordoosterlocaalspoorweg-Maatschappij. The station building of 1903 was designed by the Amsterdam architect Eduard Cuypers. The line was dismantled in 1972; the building is now a private house and a national monument.

The Roldermarkt and the first TT

The Roldermarkt began as a livestock market: according to the OVVR, the association that organises it, livestock was traded there from 1785. Today it is a festival week in September, with the horse market, a street market, an agricultural show and a funfair.

In 1925 the very first TT, the Dutch motorcycle race, started and finished in Rolde, on a 28.4-kilometre circuit over the roads to Borger, Schoonloo and Grolloo. From 1926 the race was held near Assen. The Tour de TT, a motorcycle route and a cycle route, now follows both old circuits.

Dolmens and nature

On the es by the church lie the dolmens D17 and D18, about 200 metres apart. They were built between 3400 and 3200 BC.

Around Rolde lies the Nationaal Park Drentsche Aa, with stream valleys, es villages, heath and woodland. Near Balloo is the Balloërveld, more than 360 hectares of heath with burial mounds and a sheepfold. On the edge of the village are the Rolde sand drift, which has been under restoration since 2016, and the deer park on Bosrand. Rolde is a stage stop on the Pieterpad long-distance trail.

On Rolde.nl

The guide covers Rolde’s buildings, dolmens, works of art, nature areas and stories, each on a page of its own. To find out what is going on in the village, see the news and the events calendar.