Roch Mill


Roch Mill is located in a small picturesque valley close to the sea in west Pembrokeshire National Park. Its recorded origins date back to the 13th century when it belonged to Roch Castle, a Norman watchtower on the extremities of "English" rule. The castle was built by Adam de Roche (of the rock) and it is generally believed that Roche became shortened or anglicised to the present day Roch (pronounced Roach).

The mill was last used to grind corn around 1953 employing equipment installed in 1868 (and earlier). Most of Roch mill's machinery is still intact and we are gradually undertaking its restoration. During 2009 we reinstated the water wheel and we just have to complete the project by adding its wooden buckets. Ultimately we hope to extract some heat energy from its operation.




Situated inside the Pembrokeshire National Park and just two miles from spectacular beaches like Newgale, Druidstone, Nolton Haven and Solva harbour, the six acre Roch mill estate nestles in the secluded Brandybrook valley. This pretty little river boasts a significance far greater than its size would suggest as it forms the western end of the boundary between the “Welshry” and “Englishry”. It is the historical Lansker Line and marks the limit of Norman influence nine centuries ago. Even today place names to the north of the line are nearly all Welsh whereas those to the south are predominantly English. Similarly the Welsh language is much more frequently heard towards St Davids, north of the Lansker Line.

When we first came here in 1999 the cliff behind Roch Mill had crumbled and fallen onto the back wall of the Granary completely blocking access to the rear. Worse, the cliff carries a spring-line and this oozed water onto the back of the cottage, soaking the walls, and slowly seeping underneath the earthen floors. To make the property inhabitable by modern standards the only solution was to excavate the cliff and install land-drains to divert the water away and into the nearby river.


Rear of cottage after excavating the cliff in 2000

As can be seen the ground was very wet and our initial land drain very quickly filled with water. This picture also shows an interesting feature, the clever use of a window for the boiler flue! By this stage in the "restoration" we realised that there was little that could be restored and a fundamental re-build would have been easier. But that wasn't an option as we're in the National Park and our mill is listed as an ancient building. So we retained the walls...............and one or two windows! Floors were dug up and underfloor heating installed, the walls were cleaned up, re-pointed and part rendered. All other windows and doors were replaced, the ceilings ripped out, the roofs replaced, new electrics, boiler, plumbing, drainage and sewage treatment plant - in the form of a reed bed.

Our latest project - a Garage and Workshop

Carefully constructed with a little help from our friends

Martyn                                 and                                    Gavin


Going Green!

With the garage and workshop almost complete we turned this year to the long-awaited installation of a heat pump for Roch Mill and Granary. With the central heating system at the back of the house we had quite a problem connecting in the ground loop pipes. This required that we dig up the patio, burrow under the house and water- wheel, dig a trench through the bottom of the pond (!) and excavate half a mile of trench 4 to 5 foot deep! AND we had to build a new plant-room to house all the heat pump and solar equipment. Oh yes, we also put solar hot water panels on the roof to pre-heat the incoming mains water.


Thankfully, the weather was kind to us this year (2011). Though not overly hot it remained dry nearly all summer, and we completed the trenching just before the first rains came and turned the clay soil into a quagmire.


When the water wheel is in operation the water flowing over it will fall onto a special heat exchanger at the bottom of the wheel pit. This will pre-warm the outgoing ground-loop water and add significantly to the "renewable" heat collected, thereby increasing the efficiency of the heat pump. The predicted seasonal COP (coefficient of performance), without the extra heat exchanger, is 3.8. We plan have installed temperature sensors to monitor delivered performance and we shall see just how much improvement can be realised.

The patio - during ground-loop installation


Trench for ground-loop into plant room


And, we have to route the pipes out through the main pond and back down the drive!  






Installationater of heat exchanger in wheel pit


Connecting up heat exchanger in Plant room


August 2011: Garage and workshop completed and all the ground loop trenches filled and landscaped - at last!