Roche (pronounced Roach)[1] is a village and parish in mid-Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village gets its name from a granite outcrop east of the village. Roche is the Norman-Freanch word for Rock.
Nearby are the towns of Bodmin and St Austell and the Eden Project. The civil servant Charles Knight was born in Roche.
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Roche Rock
Folk lore of the Rock
On top of Roche Rock, is a ruined chapel (dedicated to St Michael) perched dramatically at the top. Roche Rock has many folkloric 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.
Geology of Roche Rock
Roche Rock stands out as a rocky outcrop some 20 metres high on the northern flank of the St Austell granite with an approximate outcrop of some 600m x 300m.[2] The rock is of interest to geologist as it is a fine example of quartz shorl: a fully tourmalinised granite, with black tourmaline crystals. The Rock itself lies 500 metres north of the northern margin of the St Austell granite, the smallest of the five main apophyses of the Hercynian batholith of Southwest England. The outcrop is considered to have been close to the roof of the a intrusion as indicated by 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. [3]
Parish church
The church is dedicated to St Gonandus (Gonand or Goenandus): the tower is medieval but the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1822. There is a fine Norman font and a good churchyard cross.[4] Gonandus may perhaps be identified with the Breton saint Conan, connected to three places in the diocese of Vannes.[5]
References
- ^ http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/gazetter-cornwall/roche.htm
- ^ Camborne School of Mines PDF file - St Austell Granite
- ^ Geochemical Constraints from Zoned Hydrothermal Tourmalines on Fluid Evolution and Sn Mineralization: an Example from Fault Breccias at Roche, SW England
- ^ 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
External links
- Notes and photos of Roche Rock from The Modern Antiquarian
- Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for Roche
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