Roche Rock and the Tresayes Trail - Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Carolina Galindo HernándezProfessional Experience2004- Present Assistant Professor, School of Human Sciences, Universidad del Rosario.2002- 2004 Instructor, School of Human Sciences, Universidad del Rosario.2002- 2005 Lecturer, Department of Political Sciences, Universidad de los Andes.2002 Lecturer, Department of Political Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.1998- 2002 Instructor, Department of Political Science, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.EducationPh.D. Candidate, Political Science, Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences- Humboldt University.M.A., Philosophy, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Degree Awarded with Honors.B.A., Sociology, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.Teaching and Research InterestsDemocratization, Latin American Politics, State-Society Relations, Citizenship, PoliticalSociology, Political Philosophy.PublicationsBOOKS2009 Chaparro Amaya, Adolfo and Carolina Galindo Hernández. Génesis y transformaciones del Estadonación en Colombia. Una mirada topológica a los estudios sociales desde la Filosofía Política. Bogotá: CentroEditorial de la Universidad del Rosario.2008 Chaparro Amaya, Adolfo; Carolina Galindo Hernández and Anne- Marie Sallenave (Eds.)Estado, Democracia y Populismo en América Latina. Buenos Aires/Bogotá: ConsejoLatinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales - Centro Editorial de la Universidad del Rosario.1

400400wordsmillion yearsof Roche – in about& a few pictures!Around 400 million years ago this was all a shallow sea.Strange creatures lived in Roche! But of course Roche,and Cornwall, and the world looked very different.You would not have been able to recognise today’scontinents. Some have been made of bits and piecesof earlier continents, and anyway they have driftedall over the place in the last 400 million years.Sand and mud were eroded off these old continents and dumpedon the sea-bed. Then we were in the middle of a slow-speed shuntbetween Africa and Europe which crumpled the new layers ofsand and mud. Slow speed? These old continents came togetherat the stately pace of about 1 centimetre a year. That’s aboutthe rate your fingernails grow. But imagine growing your fingernails for a million years – they’d be ten kilometres long: no needfor extensions!The crumpled rocks made a mountain chain. Deep beneath themountains some of the rock melted – and molten blobs popped up(like a ‘lava lamp’) and then solidified as granite a few kilometresbelow the ground surface. All sort of other rocks – with strangenames - were formed: pegmatite, greisen, schorl, spotted slate, calcflinta,china clay – and ores of metals like tin, tungsten, iron, nickeland uranium. The mountains were worn down – strange reptileswalked the hot dry plains. Did dinosaurs ramblethrough Roche? They’d have been way aboveour heads! Several thousand metresof rock has been eroded since thedinosaurs roamed.Tin OreAbout 50 million years ago theclimate was warm and wet, andprobably a lot more feldspar rottedto form china clay (kaolin). In fact thewhole of the granite,and the slate around it,was weathered to quitea depth. Then in the Ice Age of the lastcouple of million years rapid erosionstripped off this material to leave tors –like Helman Tor and Roche Rock. Therewere no glaciers here but the conditionschanged from arctic – for ten of thousandsof years – to pleasantly warm,several times. Today we are living in a‘pleasantly warm’ time. In arctic times Rochewould have been like Siberia today but probablywith the odd herd of mammoths.UnweatheredGraniteDid woolly mammoths once grazewhere cows and sheep do now?The last glacial period ended about twelve thousand years ago. Since then we’vechanged the area a great deal. Cleared the land and farmed. Built houses, churches,chapels, schools and factories. Dug up metal ores, and dug up china clay.It’s all written into the landscape.5Roche5TTrezaise ChapelPSt Gomonda ChurchThis air photo was taken in 1995– what changes have taken placesince then?- What changes may take placein the next hundred years?- Another ten thousand?- Will it be warmer - or will therebe an Ice Age?- Another few million?Probably humans will have become extinctby then! What sort of planet will we leave?Roche RockMedieval FieldsTresayes Quarry1907Prosper TipCarbis Brickworks

Roche Rock& the Tresayes TrailYou can start this trail either from theRoche Rock or from Tresayes Quarry.Part of the route is across fields and canbe muddy. There are also stiles to cross.Key - P Space to park a car T Toilets 5 Public HouseRoute + RouteRoche Rock 1 has been written about for atRocheleast fourRockcenturies,1 has beenand beenwrittendescribedabout forinatleastmanyfourways!centuries,“Craggyandponderousbeen describedstones”,in“Amanyverie high,ways!steepe“Craggyandponderouscraggie rocke”,stones”,and even“Averielikenedhigh,to asteepehugeandmolarcraggieand anrocke”,upturnedandbunchevenlikenedof bananas.to aIt’shugemademolarof twoandveryan upturnedtough minerals,bunchofquartzbananas.and tourmaline,It’s made ofwhichtwo veryis whytoughitminerals,sticksquartzup. Theandchapeltourmaline,was dedicatedwhich istowhySt Michaelit sticksinup.1409,Thebutchapelhas beenwasadedicatedruin sincetotheSteighteenthMichaelincentury.1409,Thebut hasrarebeenTunbridgea ruinfilmysincefernthegrows ineighteenthshady placescentury.on theTheRock,rareandTunbridgea wide rangefilmyoffernplantsgrowsandinanimalsshadyliveplacesin theonheathlandaroundtheRock, and a widethe rocks.rangeof plants and animalslive in the heathlandaround the rocks.Tunbridgefilmy fern8TCemetery9P119071020052Follow one of the many pathsaround the Rock and then thesignposted footpath.76PThe name Hendra 2 has been found back to1270: it signifies a permanent farm, withbuildings (rather than a temporary place for ashepherd to sleep in near his flocks). Hendrevighan is mentioned in a document of 1302 –Little Hendra. The ruin beside the track wasonce a cottage.3At the tarmac road turn left until it ends,then follow the track to the right, gentlyuphill to the nature reserve.The scrubby area 3 in the shallow valley is nowcalled Stennacks which means tinworks, but inthe 19th century it was called Stennack Ladron– Thieves’ Tinworks. The sands and gravels inthe valley bottom were turned over for tinstone,leaving the characteristic landscape of ridgesand troughs, bumps and pools – as you cansee in the air photo.Tresayes Quarry 4 had twoquite different products at different times. Thequarry is mostly known for its very long feldsparcrystals. The rock was quarried then the feldsparhand-picked by women – balmaidens –Long-tailed tit4 5using hammers. At one stage the quarried rockwas loaded into wagons, sent down a tramwayand then tipped down to women working inopen sheds below. The feldspar was worked onand off in the 19th century with short re-openingsin both world wars. The material was used inglazes, glass and porcelain. In the 20th century avery hard rock (like Roche Rock) was quarriedfor roadstone but this quarry is now underthe tips 5 of Wheal Prosper clayworks, while evidence for therock crushers, stock piles andwaste tips is now hiddenunder the vegetation besidethe track. The rock wascalled blue elvan by theFeldspar quarrymen, but this nameis also used in Cornwallfor ‘greenstone’, which isusually a dolerite, a quitedifferent rock.The quarry is now a naturereserve with willow cloaked inlichens and ferns and mosses.On the dryer part you will findheathers and other wild flowers.Many birds find shelter and food in the willows.Cornwall Wildlife Trust pays one peppercornper year as rent to Goonvean – a bargain!The place-name Tresayes has been tracedback to 1260 – when it was spelt Treseis. Seiswas probably a person’s name, so Treseismeans ‘The farm belonging to Seis’. Todaythere are several ways of spelling Tresayes.Seis would probably be quite at home in theflower-rich heathland around the Rock: it hasnot changed much in a thousand years, buthis animals would have kept the gorse,bracken and brambles down!Retrace your steps back to the road, andcontinue towards the main road until justpast a farmyard - then look back!The end wall of the barn 6 has an amazingcollection of the local stones – all the rocks inthe neighbourhood are here: different granites,quartz-tourmaline rock (‘schorl’, or ‘blue elvan’to the quarrymen), killas (baked slates), ‘sparstone’(quartz), and more.Continue to the endof the road.Trezaise Chapel 7 wasbuilt in 1883 but incorporates anearlier building’s dedication stone. TheBible Christians broke away from the WesleyanMethodists, but later rejoined. Beside the mainentrance is some fancy carving in a limestone,brought in from around Bath. John Wesleyvisited Roche in 1768.Opposite the chapel is amodern Cornish hedgemade of Cornish Stone,brought in from a quarryat St Issey or Liskeard orsomewhere. Certainly thereis no stone like it found in thearea. Using waste rock from theclaypits would have been more in character.At the top of the hedge is some zig-zag work– Jack and Jills, or curzey-way – commonlyseen in North Cornwall.You can either turn back down ProsperRoad and then go down the track andacross the fields to the Rock, or follow themain road back, past the new cemetery tothe parish church and on to the Rock.The church 8 is dedicated toSt Gomonda. It was rebuilt twice inthe nineteenth century but at leastthe Norman font of Pentewan stonesurvives. There are similar fonts inBodmin and St Austell parish churches. Inthe churchyard there’s an unusual medievalcross and some fine carved slate tombstones.The walls of the church are made of blocksboth of granite and of darker schorl – thequartz-tourmaline rock which makes up theRock: can you tell which is which?Neolithic pottery was found under the newhousing estate 9, so Roche has beeninhabited for at least five thousand years.A short drive down the road towards Bugle, andthe mostly off-road Clay Trails, is CarbisBrickworks. There’s no pavement so best notto walk down the road, but you could followa footpath downhill from Hendra.Carbis brickworks 10 is on private propertybut you can see the kilns and chimney stackfrom the road. It produced bricks for furnaces,calciners, smelting houses and foundries. Youcan also find white bricks stamped CARBIS usedin more humdrum situations. On both sidesare old clay dries, converted for modern uses.