Roach rock and tower are very conspicuous objects. The tower, like
some others in that neighbourhood, is lofty and without pinnacles.
The rock is in itself the most remarkable object in all that range of
crystaline formations, and it is crowned by the building described by
Mr. Hals, which bears every appearance of having been the cell of an
anchorite, a Stylites, or pillar saint, so far as this climate would
admit. Mr. Lysons, but without quoting any authority, says it was
dedicated to St. Michael. Mr. Whitaker, clearly drawing on the
resources of his own fancy, has transformed Gunett or Gundred, the
traditionary daughter of the Leper who retired to this place, into a
masculine saint, whom he names St. Conant, and to whom Mr. Whitaker
says, that not only the hermitage but the church is dedicated.
As Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Lysons have failed of producing any document,
or of alleging any tradition worthy of the smallest reliance, it may
fairly be concluded that nothing is known with respect to the origin
or specific use of this cell. It may therefore have been constructed
as they think, by some proprietor of a neighbouring estate impelled by
the insane mythology then in fashion, for it cannot be called
religion; and afterwards, as appears to have been the case in various
other situations, it may have been used for a place of penitentiary
exile from St. Petrock’s Monastery. Mr. Lysons has given a perspective
view, and an exact plan of this building, accompanied by measurements,
from which it appears to be 14 feet 8 inches long, by 10 feet 6 inches
wide, and the wall about 2 feet 3 inches thick, except at the
south-eastern end, where the wall is laid down 3 feet 6 inches. No one
can wish to see this building again appropriated to its former
superstitious purposes; but it may be a fair subject of regret, that
such a remnant of antiquity should not be protected from injury by the
addition of a roof.
Mr. Treweeke, the incumbent mentioned by Mr. Hals, was succeeded by
Mr. John Tregenna, who held also the rectory of Mawgan in Pider, and
on his decease in 1754, the Rev. Samuel Furley was nominated by a
Society in London, who had purchased this and other livings,
especially in populous places, for the avowed purpose of inculcating
specific religious opinions. At Roach it is understood that benefit
has resulted to the inhabitants from these appointments, and certainly
no clergyman could be more exemplary in the discharge of his parochial
duties, or more liberal in his conduct, than the able and intelligent
individual and excellent scholar who, to the regret of the whole
neighbourhood, has recently retired from the arduous care of a flock,
consisting chiefly of stream-work miners, the least cultivated portion
of a class of men, in general much exceeding the average population of
this kingdom in general knowledge, and consequent good conduct, in
relation to their duties both in public and in private life.
Yet, notwithstanding this instance, the Editor cannot but think that
such a system of mortmain for making church patronage permanently
subservient to self-constituted bodies, as the medium for giving
currency to peculiar doctrines, thus erecting mere wealth into an
hierarchy as well as an aristocracy in this kingdom, requires a
prohibition from the legislature; more especially as the desire and
the zeal for acquiring proselytes have been found in all times, in all
nations, and under every form of religion, not to bear a very strict
relation either to the soundness of doctrine, or to the virtues such
doctrine may be likely to produce.
It is clearly impossible that this parish can have been dedicated to
St. Roche, since the name occurs in the Valuation of Pope Nicholas
made about the year 1291, where, under the Deanery of Pouder, stands:
Ecclesia de Roupe, Taxatio, £6. 6_s._ 8_d._ Decima, 12_s._ 8_d._ while
St. Roche is said to have died in 1327, forty-six years afterwards;
and if that were not sufficient, the name occurs in the Domesday
Survey made two hundred years before the time of Pope Nicholas, and
two hundred and fifty before that of the saint.
The similarity of the sounds――parish of the Rock, and parish of St.
Roche,――may have occasioned a subsequent adoption of this saint: of
whom it is stated, from the very scanty materials remaining to make
out his life, that having left Montpellier, the place of his birth, to
proceed on a pilgrimage to Rome, he encountered the plague at the city
of Placentia; that not obtaining any assistance or human help, after
that most dreadful disease had manifested itself on his person, he got
into a wood where dogs miraculously afforded him all the aid in their
power, after a manner suggested by the parable of Lazarus. Getting
well, he bestowed on others in the town that help which had been
refused to himself; and fully satisfied with this effort on behalf of
humanity, he returned into France, and spent the remainder of his life
in idleness and solitude.
He is fervently adored, and his aid entreated, over France and Italy,
as the individual to whom Almighty God has delegated the care and
superintendence of all cutaneous complaints or exterior ulcers; and it
is rather curious that throughout Cornwall a congeries of pimples is
denominated a roach up to the present time.
This parish measures 6,080 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 3989 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 577 17 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 954 | 1161 | 1425 | 1630
giving an increase of 71 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Charles Lyne, presented by the Trustees in
1833.