Roche
| Roche | |
| Cornwall | |
|---|---|
 Roche | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SW987602 |
| Location: | 50°24’26"N, 4°50’2"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | St Austell |
| Postcode: | PL26 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cornwall |
Roche is a village in mid-Cornwall.
The name of the village is pronounced 'Roach'.[1] It gets its name from a granite outcrop east of the village: roche is the Norman-French word for rock. On the southern flank of the village is the 65-foot high Roche Rock, the granite outcrop itself.
The parish population at the 2011 census was 3,686.
Nearby are the towns of Bodmin and St Austell. The Eden Project is close by too.
Roche Rock
Roche Rock stands out as a rocky outcrop some 65 feet high on the northern flank of the St Austell granite with an approximate area of 650 yards by 350 yards.[2]
The rock is of interest to geologists as it is a fine example of quartz shorl; a fully tourmalinised granite, with black tourmaline crystals. The Rock itself sits approximately 500 yards north of the northern margin of the St Austell granite, which is the smallest of the five main apophyses of the Hercynian batholith of the West Country. The presence of numerous pegmatites occurring as sheets and containing abundant miarolitic cavities carrying quartz, tourmaline, zinnwaldite, topaz. and a wide range of other phases, is why it is considered to have been close to the roof of the intrusion[3]
The site is considered to be of prime importance for future research and notification as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest occurred in 1991.[4]
On top of Roche Rock is a ruined chapel (dedicated to St Michael). Roche Rock has many folk-lore tales associated with it, the two most famous being the legend of Jan Tregeagle, a seventeenth century magistrate, who after death found refuge in the chapel and the other being part of the Tristan and Iseult tale.
Parish church
The church is dedicated to St Gomondas / Gonandus (Gonand or Goenandus): the tower is mediæval but the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1822. There is a fine Norman font and a good churchyard cross.[5] Gonandus may perhaps be identified with the Breton saint Conan, connected to three places in the diocese of Vannes.[6]
Railway
Roche railway station is located a mile north of Roche itself, at Victoria. The station has a single track, with a marker board showing direction of travel either to Newquay or Par.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Roche) |
- Notes and photos of Roche Rock from The Modern Antiquarian
- Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for Roche
References
- ↑ Roche, Cornwall with the tiny hermit rock chapel - Cornwall-calling.co.uk
- ↑ St Austell area - Projects.exeter.ac.uk
- ↑ "Geochemical Constraints from Zoned Hydrothermal Tourmalines on Fluid Evolution and Sn Mineralization: an Example from Fault Breccias at Roche, SW England". http://petrology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/41/9/1439. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
- ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Roche Rock
- ↑ Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; pp. 190-191
- ↑ Doble, G. H. (1964) The Saints of Cornwall: part 4. Truro: Dean and Chapter; pp. 128-131
- Payne, H. M. Creswell (1948) Story of the Parish of Roche, ASIN: B004ITZBWG