Roche, Cornwall

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.