Roche in Cornwall: Resource page

Profile manager: Sally Douglas [send private message]

This page is intended as a repository for information and resources for genealogists researching the history of Roche in Cornwall, and the families who lived or originated there.

Please feel free to add information and sources.

Websites and Links - General

Please free to add to this list.

• Cornwall Online Parish Clerk Website has a very useful and informative page about Roche, with a fabulous array of linked resources. Well worth a look. The main website is invaluable for searching for BMDs and other records.
• Cornwall Record Office catalogue of offline resources for Roche. The documents are unfortunately not yet digitised, but it's useful being able to see what's in the archive. It's worth noting that sometimes in the CRO index there is an abstract of what the record contains, which can be useful, so it's worth clicking on as far as possible.
• Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative Report: ROCHE This is an in-depth historical and archaeological survey of the area commissioned by Cornwall County Council and undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit, with a view to future conservation planning. It is full of useful and interesting details.
• FamilySearch has scans of original parish records for many county parishes, including some for Roche. These are generally not indexed so you have to click around a bit to find the right page, but there is often information that is not on the basic transcription.
• Family Search's page on Genealogical Resources for Roche
• Roche Wills and/or Probate Documents available from the Cornwall Record Office (CRO) and the National Archives Another great resource from the Cornwall OPC. Some wills have been transcribed and are linked to from this page.
• Roche Parish Council Cemetery Memorial Inscriptions. Again from the OPC. all of the memorials in Roche Cemetery, transcribed by John Evans.

Books

Please free to add to this list.

• Cresswell Payne, H.M. The Story of the parish of Roche, Edgcumbe Gardens, Newquay: Eliot Garth, no date but internal evidence points to publication in the 1920s.

Family Names Associated with Roche

Please free to add to this list

• Brokenshire

• Edyvean

• Hancock

• Pinch

• Trethewey

• Trethewy

• Warne

• Woon

The China Clay Industry

• Over-view of china clay industry
• Mindat An overview of all the mines/mineral locations around Roche. Scroll down to the very bottom for a list.
• The China Clay History Society is based at Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum. They hold a growing archive of historical documents and also have a collection of over 100,000 images related to the china clay industry. Their site also contains links to other sources of information, and publications. They welcome enquiries from researchers into the industry.

Tin Mining

• Criggan Mine

Methodism in Roche

• Profile of Jane Trethewey, who was very influential in encouraging Methodism in Roche
• A general over-view of the history of Methodism in Cornwall

Wikipedia's Entry about Roche

From Wikipedia:^[1]

Roche (/roʊtʃ/, "roach"; Cornish: Tregarrek, meaning homestead of the rock) is a civil parish and village in mid-Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village 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 20-metre (66-foot) high Roche Rock, a large granite outcrop. The parish population at the 2011 census including Belowda, Bilberry, Carbis, Coldvreath and Criggan is 3,381, and the ward population at the same census was 3,867.

Roche Rock (Cornish: An Garrek) stands out as a rocky outcrop some 20 metres (66 ft) high on the northern flank of the St Austell granite with an approximate area of 600 metres (2,000 ft) x 300 metres (980 ft).) 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 lies approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) north of the northern margin of the St Austell granite, which is the smallest of the five main apophyses of the Hercynian batholith of Southwest England. 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 The site is considered to be of prime importance for future research and notification by English Nature as a geological SSSI occurred in 1991.

On top of Roche Rock is a ruined chapel (dedicated to St Michael) which is said to have been the abode of a leper or a monk. An 1881 description of the chapel, still had a considerable portion of the masony standing and one or two windows were faily perfect, although the steps up to the chapel are roughly cut. Roche Rock has many folk-lore tales associated with it, the two most famous being the legend of Jan Tregeagle, a 17th-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 medieval but the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1822. There is a fine Norman font and a good churchyard cross. Gonandus may perhaps be identified with the Breton saint Conan, connected to three places in the diocese of Vannes.

There are two Cornish crosses in the parish: one in a meadow near the rectory garden is thought to be in situ; the other in the churchyard has ornament on the four sides of the shaft. The churchyard cross is made of a massive piece of moorland granite; it has similarities to the cross in the graveyard at Merther Uny. Glebe Cross has crosses in relief on either face of the cross head.

Railway Roche railway station is located approximately 1 mile north of Roche, at Victoria on the Atlantic Coast Line. Trains are operated by First Great Western. The station has a single track, with a marker board showing direction of travel either to Newquay or Par.

Other

Please free to add to this list

References

1. ↑ Please see the Wikipedia page for sources for this information.