Roche, Cornwall

Roche (/roʊtʃ/, "roach";[1] Cornish: Tregarrek, meaning homestead of the rock) is a civil parish and village in mid-Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

The civil servant Charles Knight was born in Roche and Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament Matthew Taylor retired there.

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 the present outcrop of the St Austell granite is considered to have been close to the roof of the intrusion.

[5] One such pegmatite was formerly exploited for orthoclase feldspar at Tresayes Quarry, on the southern edge of the village and now a geological nature reserve of Cornwall Wildlife Trust.

Roche Rock is considered to be of prime importance for future research, and notification by Natural England as a geological SSSI occurred in 1991.