NINETEEN SIXTY FOUR – PART 118
John Roach – Railway Contractor
Michael L. Roach
When I received my first camera, as a schoolboy, in 1957 I started keeping records of every photograph taken and that also acted as a kind of diary recording almost everywhere I had been. Later it would be refined to record not only the date and time but also the weather and the exposure etc. That detailed record keeping ceased in 2007 when I retired and also went digital, because it became simply impossible when taking up to 100 or more photos a day on holiday for example. Instead I started keeping a detailed diary of what happened each day, and more importantly where we went, acting as a kind of index for the digital images.
In July 2026 I was looking through my diary for 2010 trying to find the date of the incident at Penzance Station described in Part 114. I did not find it but it was interesting to see some of the railway stations used and visited that year while on holiday, such as Alnmouth, Dewsbury, Durham Gilesgate, Hartlepool, Knaresborough, Leeds and Wakefield. The previous year I had fallen off a step ladder and could not move so I sat at a table and started researching my family history and in my diary page for 24 September 2010 I recorded the 1851 census result for a John Roach born 1804 at Revelstoke. Now Revelstoke was the parish church for the village of Noss Mayo where my great great grandmother was born in 1825. The parish church was then a mile or more away from Noss Mayo near the cliffs and was replaced by a Victorian Parish Church in the village but before then parishioners would have found it more convenient to have walked across the causeway at low tide and up the hill to Newton Ferrers Parish Church.
Thus far I have found a total of about 280 Roaches being born in The South Hams between Plymouth and Kingsbridge between 1665 and 1945 and John was already on my list when I rediscovered him in 2026, having quite forgotten about him despite how interesting he is, so I guessed that if I looked back far enough it might be possible to show that we were distantly related. John's parents were George (born 1764) and Jane or Joan (Elliott). His grandparents were William (b 1726) and Rebeckah (Harvey) and his great grandparents were William (b 1686) and Ann (Strode). My 4 times Great Grandparents were the same George (b1764) and Jane/Joan Elliott who were married at Newton Ferrers Parish Church in 1787. John was the sixth of the six confirmed children born to George and Jane Roach. Child no. 4 was James William Roach (b 1799) who married Sarah Crispin at Newton Ferrers on 24 October 1823. Their first child was Louisa born July 1825 whose life was described in 1964 – Part 53. We are connected in another quite different way as we both worked in civil engineering for part of our working lives.
John Roach married Jane Byland (born 1802) of Antony, Torpoint, Cornwall in February 1827 at Charles Church, Plymouth. Although Charles Church was destroyed in an air raid in WW2 the roofless shell survives in the middle of a roundabout on the east side of the City Centre on the A374. John claimed to be the same age as his wife, or a year older, in all censuses a ploy often used when a man was younger than his wife. John and Jane Roach had three children. They were John Byland Roach (1829-1906); George Byland Roach (1831-1919); and Susanna Yelland “Annie” Roach (1834-1891). The name Yelland appears to come from Jane's mother (i.e John's mother-in-law) who was 85 years old and living with John and Jane in the 1851 census.
In the 1851 census John Roach was living at Keyford in Frome, Somerset and describes himself as a “Rail Contractor.” In 1851 the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Line was being built by the Great Western Railway who had taken over the W, S & W Railway about a year before the census of 1851. Frome Station opened on 7 October 1850 and Castle Cary Station opened on 1 September 1856, which confirms that the railways were still being built in the area in 1851. John Roach might have done quite well out of building railways judging by the parts of London that he later lived in and the servants that he had. Sometime between the census's of 1851 and 1861 John Roach changed his surname from Roach to Roche. This could well be a reflection of something that he might have been told 200 years ago and I could only surmise – that our family had come across the English Channel from France and settled in South Devon sometime before 1665.
In London John lived in Kensington W11 4RS and at Hampstead NW3 4NG. Both properties are tall, elegant and quite beautiful, and while there John describes himself variously as Proprietor of Houses and Slate Merchant. His eldest son John Byland Roach also worked in the slate business in London, while second son George left home at the age of just 20 years to advance his career in civil engineering. John and his two sons would have met the Engineer for the W,S & W Railway on his occasional visits to inspect progress and to chair site meetings – he was of course the great Brunel. Much as John Roach's life was interesting his son's George's life was even more interesting as we shall see in a forthcoming article one day.
My thanks go to Guy Vincent for providing a photo of Frome station train-shed soon after it had been restored. The station is a unique survivor of a through train-shed.
In July 2026 I was looking through my diary for 2010 trying to find the date of the incident at Penzance Station described in Part 114. I did not find it but it was interesting to see some of the railway stations used and visited that year while on holiday, such as Alnmouth, Dewsbury, Durham Gilesgate, Hartlepool, Knaresborough, Leeds and Wakefield. The previous year I had fallen off a step ladder and could not move so I sat at a table and started researching my family history and in my diary page for 24 September 2010 I recorded the 1851 census result for a John Roach born 1804 at Revelstoke. Now Revelstoke was the parish church for the village of Noss Mayo where my great great grandmother was born in 1825. The parish church was then a mile or more away from Noss Mayo near the cliffs and was replaced by a Victorian Parish Church in the village but before then parishioners would have found it more convenient to have walked across the causeway at low tide and up the hill to Newton Ferrers Parish Church.
Thus far I have found a total of about 280 Roaches being born in The South Hams between Plymouth and Kingsbridge between 1665 and 1945 and John was already on my list when I rediscovered him in 2026, having quite forgotten about him despite how interesting he is, so I guessed that if I looked back far enough it might be possible to show that we were distantly related. John's parents were George (born 1764) and Jane or Joan (Elliott). His grandparents were William (b 1726) and Rebeckah (Harvey) and his great grandparents were William (b 1686) and Ann (Strode). My 4 times Great Grandparents were the same George (b1764) and Jane/Joan Elliott who were married at Newton Ferrers Parish Church in 1787. John was the sixth of the six confirmed children born to George and Jane Roach. Child no. 4 was James William Roach (b 1799) who married Sarah Crispin at Newton Ferrers on 24 October 1823. Their first child was Louisa born July 1825 whose life was described in 1964 – Part 53. We are connected in another quite different way as we both worked in civil engineering for part of our working lives.
John Roach married Jane Byland (born 1802) of Antony, Torpoint, Cornwall in February 1827 at Charles Church, Plymouth. Although Charles Church was destroyed in an air raid in WW2 the roofless shell survives in the middle of a roundabout on the east side of the City Centre on the A374. John claimed to be the same age as his wife, or a year older, in all censuses a ploy often used when a man was younger than his wife. John and Jane Roach had three children. They were John Byland Roach (1829-1906); George Byland Roach (1831-1919); and Susanna Yelland “Annie” Roach (1834-1891). The name Yelland appears to come from Jane's mother (i.e John's mother-in-law) who was 85 years old and living with John and Jane in the 1851 census.
In the 1851 census John Roach was living at Keyford in Frome, Somerset and describes himself as a “Rail Contractor.” In 1851 the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Line was being built by the Great Western Railway who had taken over the W, S & W Railway about a year before the census of 1851. Frome Station opened on 7 October 1850 and Castle Cary Station opened on 1 September 1856, which confirms that the railways were still being built in the area in 1851. John Roach might have done quite well out of building railways judging by the parts of London that he later lived in and the servants that he had. Sometime between the census's of 1851 and 1861 John Roach changed his surname from Roach to Roche. This could well be a reflection of something that he might have been told 200 years ago and I could only surmise – that our family had come across the English Channel from France and settled in South Devon sometime before 1665.
In London John lived in Kensington W11 4RS and at Hampstead NW3 4NG. Both properties are tall, elegant and quite beautiful, and while there John describes himself variously as Proprietor of Houses and Slate Merchant. His eldest son John Byland Roach also worked in the slate business in London, while second son George left home at the age of just 20 years to advance his career in civil engineering. John and his two sons would have met the Engineer for the W,S & W Railway on his occasional visits to inspect progress and to chair site meetings – he was of course the great Brunel. Much as John Roach's life was interesting his son's George's life was even more interesting as we shall see in a forthcoming article one day.
My thanks go to Guy Vincent for providing a photo of Frome station train-shed soon after it had been restored. The station is a unique survivor of a through train-shed.
An extract of the 7th Series 1-inch map of the Newton and Noss area showing the closed railway stations at Brixton Road and Steer Point (but strangely not Yealmpton – just east of the B-road). Also shewn is the redundant medieval church of Revelstoke on the cliff just north of Stoke Point.
A close-up of the Newton and Noss area showing that the medieval parish church of Newton Ferrers and the Victorian parish church at Noss Mayo are just 500 metres apart.
166202 stands at Frome Station on the 14.04 to Swindon on 21 February 2018. The station then looked immaculate after a restoration four years earlier in which it won an award. Copyright Guy Vincent.
Many thanks Michael, your dedication to research for your articles must be admired.
For more of Michaels work, please click here.
For more of Michaels work, please click here.
Re: Wrangaton
Graham Mann
Hi,
I still get much pleasure reading your brilliant website.
The recent article on Wrangaton took me back to 1972 on joining British Rail as a trackman.
Our patch covered from the 232mp to 243m20ch mp right by whats now Sainsburys in Plymouth.
Although the signal box was slightly off our patch we used it as our “gang hut” whenever we were working at Wrangaton, we normally parked at Siding cross or very occasionally on top of the overbridge (now long gone)
We also used it when we were recovering the points to the naval depot.
There is a connection between Wrangaton and Burngullow which very few people would know, the points in Wrangaton Sidings that directly connected to the main line points laid in situ for at least 2 decades following the main line removal.
I was tasked with creating a FB crossover from an existing single FB turnout in Burngullow depot, I remembered the points left many years before at Wrangaton which on examination were an exact match for what i needed and were in reasonable condition.
The point had to be recovered by road and by incredible coincidence the security man on Wrangaton security gates was an old school pal of mine from many years before, he opened the gates for us one Saturday night, we recovered the whole turnout with cranage to low loaders and took it all to Burngullow for installation which we did during the following week.
So a very tenuous link, I hope it’s interesting to your readership but the article did bring back many memories and felt I had to unload that memory
I still get much pleasure reading your brilliant website.
The recent article on Wrangaton took me back to 1972 on joining British Rail as a trackman.
Our patch covered from the 232mp to 243m20ch mp right by whats now Sainsburys in Plymouth.
Although the signal box was slightly off our patch we used it as our “gang hut” whenever we were working at Wrangaton, we normally parked at Siding cross or very occasionally on top of the overbridge (now long gone)
We also used it when we were recovering the points to the naval depot.
There is a connection between Wrangaton and Burngullow which very few people would know, the points in Wrangaton Sidings that directly connected to the main line points laid in situ for at least 2 decades following the main line removal.
I was tasked with creating a FB crossover from an existing single FB turnout in Burngullow depot, I remembered the points left many years before at Wrangaton which on examination were an exact match for what i needed and were in reasonable condition.
The point had to be recovered by road and by incredible coincidence the security man on Wrangaton security gates was an old school pal of mine from many years before, he opened the gates for us one Saturday night, we recovered the whole turnout with cranage to low loaders and took it all to Burngullow for installation which we did during the following week.
So a very tenuous link, I hope it’s interesting to your readership but the article did bring back many memories and felt I had to unload that memory
Many thanks indeed Graham, a great story and a cornish connection. Thanks for sharing the memory with us.
Dobwalls 'Duff'
Roger Geach
47619 working the 1200 Paddington - Penzance 1C38 passing Dobwalls on Sunday 07.09.1986, this location was good after 1800hrs when the sun went round. Copyright Roger Geach.
Many thanks as ever, Roger.
Totnes Riverside
Martin Scane
Here’s 5526 at Totnes Riverside about to set off for Buckfastleigh at 11-25 on 3rd August. Photo taken from the grounds of the Rare Breeds Farm opposite the station. 03.08.2026, copyright Martin Scane.
Lovely framing Martin - many thanks indeed.
Test unit at Par
Mark Lynam
153384 arrives at Par from Derby, having lost an hour in Laira earlier in the evening. 03.08.2026, copyright Mark Lynam.
The unit stables for the night in Par Liner Siding. 03.08.2026, copyright Mark Lynam.
Many thanks Mark, nice sky.
The unit suffered problems on its return journey on 04.08 and at the time of writing, was stranded in Lostwithiel Loop awaiting attention.
The unit suffered problems on its return journey on 04.08 and at the time of writing, was stranded in Lostwithiel Loop awaiting attention.
Lostwithiel Run Round
Jon Hird
66759 pulls into Lostwithiel passing the disused signal box, running round its train of empty wagons which are waiting in the down goods loop. 04.08.2026, copyright Jon Hird.
No.2 son Charlie waves 66759 'Chippy' off as it runs back into the loop to rejoin its train. 04.08.2026, copyright Jon Hird.
A shaft of lucky sunshine breaks through an otherwise threatening sky and puts a spotlight on 66759 and 6G05 waiting departure from the down loop. I feel nowadays that Lostwithiel (as far as railways go) is quite a sad place - the silent signal box, the rotting decapitated signals, the lifted goods yard and the assortment of disused railway relics sprouting from the lineside vegetation all acts to give it a run-down feeling. I can't remember as far back in time as many of our readers, but even over the last 20 years the changes here have been dramatic. 04.08.2026, copyright Jon Hird.
August 1976
Part 5
Roger Winnen
Southampton Signal Gantry. 01.08.1976, copyright Roger Winnen.
DEMU 1101 at Southampton Central. 01.08.1976, copyright Roger Winnen.
DEMU 1101 departs Southampton. 01.08.1976, copyright Roger Winnen.