Roche, Cornwall
Historical Description
Roche, a village and a parish in Cornwall. The village stands 2 miles NNW of Hensbarrow Beacon, and 5 NNW of St Austell station on the G.W.R., and was known at Domesday as Treroache. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage of the parish, 6471; population, 1626. The manor was anciently held by the De Rapes. Roche Rocks, half a mile S of the village, rise 680 feet above sea-level, consist of quartz and friable schor], terminate in great masses piled confusedly together, and inclose on the summit remains of an ancient hermitage chapel in Decorated English architecture. St Roche's Well is in the vicinity of the rocks, and is superstitiously visited by some of the peasantry as " a wishing well." Hensbarrow Beacon is on the S boundary, and rises to an altitude of 1034 feet. Stream tin and porcelain clay are worked, and the latter is sent by way of Liverpool to Staffordshire. A temperance hall was erected in 1884. Fairs are held on the day before Holy Thursday, the third Tuesday in July, and the second Tuesday in Oct. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Truro; net value, £330 with residence. The church was thoroughly restored in 1890. There are Wesleyan and Bible Christian chapels.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Cornwall | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Roach St. Gomonda | |
Hundred | Powder | |
Poor Law union | St. Austell |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Roche from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Roach, or Roche (St. Gomonda))
Maps
Online maps of Roche are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Cornwall papers online:
- Royal Cornwall Gazette
- Cornishman
- West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser
- Lake's Falmouth Packet and Cornwall Advertiser
Visitations Heraldic
We have a copy of The Visitations of Cornwall, by Lieut.-Col. J.L. Vivian online.