![\"Roche](\"https:\/\/blog.jadownes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/XnNkVdwK08l9ECZhqPfhFJQySuCq59y0bgDHTH2S.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beautiful summer day<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\nRoche abbey is a lovely little ruin in a shallow valley near Rotherham, in South Yorkshire. It is managed by English Heritage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe ruins<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nNo surprise for Tudor history-lovers, the abbey is a ruin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are impressive north and south transept walls and an interesting ground plan of foundations can be seen. A small beck (stream) runs through the valley, and it is criss-crossed by paths with tiny stone bridges in numerous spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a sunny summer’s day it is really quite beautiful and serene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why did I visit?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Well it’s lovely and I’m an English Heritage member, so why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More particularly I wanted to visit a small Cistercian abbey as part of my research for Speculation: Undercurrents of Treachery<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe climax of the novella is set in an abbey in Suffolk (not Roche Abbey) and I wanted to soak up the atmosphere and check the layout before completing the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Roche](\"https:\/\/blog.jadownes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UYpAQClpxLgdlqtSqPT0LW4iULEZmVONMkNwX0MT-768x1024.jpg\")
Roche Abbey site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nGatehouse
<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe abbey’s gatehouse is almost as impressive as the transepts (although not as tall).<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Roche](\"https:\/\/blog.jadownes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DtoNiXM4bUAbRNSNmZmkqhEMpv4Vo7ZZ0tDHDsyG-768x1024.jpg\")
Roche Abbey Gatehouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDissolution
<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe abbey was founded in 1147 and at its height supported a community of around 175 men (about a third being ‘choir monks’ and the rest lay brothers) however there were only 14 monks and an unknown number of novices at the time of the dissolution by King Henry VIII on 23 June 1538.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Countryside walk
<\/strong><\/h3>\nThere is a short countryside walk around the site, leading to some pretty vantage points; for the abbey itself (see the main picture) and for a waterfall on the nearby stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"Roche](\"https:\/\/blog.jadownes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/XnNkVdwK08l9ECZhqPfhFJQySuCq59y0bgDHTH2S-768x1024.jpg\")
Roche Abbey from walk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n3D Model<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nI created a 3D model of the south transept, as a .usdz file, and I have hosted it in Dropbox for anyone interested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s the link<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to use;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Click the link above and\u00a0the DropBox website should open<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Dropbox can’t display the file, so it will just show an image, possible\u00a0saying ‘Can’t display this file type’, and have a small button below that is labelled ‘DOWNLOAD’ or \u2018OPEN\u2019 or\u00a0similar.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Click the Download\/Open button<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- IMPORTANT: when it opens it will immediately \u2019zoom\u2019 to full size, which is life-size (IRL it is about 10m square). When it does this zoom, you (the viewer) will be \u201cinside\u201d the ruin and won\u2019t be able\u00a0see anything – you\u2019ll have a blank screen! You will need to zoom out to see the building (on a touch device you just \u201cpinch\u201d like when viewing a photo). Then you can rotate\/tilt\/zoom etc and away you go.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- IF you\u2019re on a computer, I\u00a0recommend you use an anti-virus scanning tool (the file doesn’t have any viruses, afaik but\u00a0you should get into the habit of scanning everything!)
I have an Apple MacBook Pro (M4 Pro chip – love it!) and I use Intego security software:\u00a0Intego website<\/a>. No I’m not an affiliate and I don’t get a kickback\/fee. It’s just what I use.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n- On Apple devices, .usdz files are almost native format – just doubleclick\u00a0the file after download\/scanning\u00a0and open it! iPads\/iPhone will auto-open the file and display it.\u00a0You can view it in Safari, Notes, share it in emails and messages,\u00a0and more.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Non-Apple devices…You can download it and either use a converter like Meshy AI to convert it to an obj file, or use the online viewer at\u00a0USDZ VIEWER<\/a>, which works very easily. Just open their website and drag the file into it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Please consider it Public Domain – free to use (although you might need to tidy it up a bit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Roche](\"https:\/\/blog.jadownes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OQXib9lPgOSHWAbIVmE7yKKYeErqRzBuaQljulX5-834x1024.png\")
Roche Abbey 3D model<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beautiful summer day Roche abbey is a lovely little ruin in a shallow valley near Rotherham, in South Yorkshire. It is managed by English Heritage. The ruins No surprise for Tudor history-lovers, the abbey is a ruin. There are impressive north and south transept walls and an interesting ground plan of foundations can be seen. A … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-tudor-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The ruins<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nNo surprise for Tudor history-lovers, the abbey is a ruin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are impressive north and south transept walls and an interesting ground plan of foundations can be seen. A small beck (stream) runs through the valley, and it is criss-crossed by paths with tiny stone bridges in numerous spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a sunny summer’s day it is really quite beautiful and serene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why did I visit?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Well it’s lovely and I’m an English Heritage member, so why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More particularly I wanted to visit a small Cistercian abbey as part of my research for Speculation: Undercurrents of Treachery<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe climax of the novella is set in an abbey in Suffolk (not Roche Abbey) and I wanted to soak up the atmosphere and check the layout before completing the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRoche Abbey site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nGatehouse
<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe abbey’s gatehouse is almost as impressive as the transepts (although not as tall).<\/p>\n\n\n\nRoche Abbey Gatehouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDissolution
<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe abbey was founded in 1147 and at its height supported a community of around 175 men (about a third being ‘choir monks’ and the rest lay brothers) however there were only 14 monks and an unknown number of novices at the time of the dissolution by King Henry VIII on 23 June 1538.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Countryside walk
<\/strong><\/h3>\nThere is a short countryside walk around the site, leading to some pretty vantage points; for the abbey itself (see the main picture) and for a waterfall on the nearby stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nRoche Abbey from walk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n3D Model<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nI created a 3D model of the south transept, as a .usdz file, and I have hosted it in Dropbox for anyone interested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s the link<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to use;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Click the link above and\u00a0the DropBox website should open<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Dropbox can’t display the file, so it will just show an image, possible\u00a0saying ‘Can’t display this file type’, and have a small button below that is labelled ‘DOWNLOAD’ or \u2018OPEN\u2019 or\u00a0similar.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Click the Download\/Open button<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- IMPORTANT: when it opens it will immediately \u2019zoom\u2019 to full size, which is life-size (IRL it is about 10m square). When it does this zoom, you (the viewer) will be \u201cinside\u201d the ruin and won\u2019t be able\u00a0see anything – you\u2019ll have a blank screen! You will need to zoom out to see the building (on a touch device you just \u201cpinch\u201d like when viewing a photo). Then you can rotate\/tilt\/zoom etc and away you go.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- IF you\u2019re on a computer, I\u00a0recommend you use an anti-virus scanning tool (the file doesn’t have any viruses, afaik but\u00a0you should get into the habit of scanning everything!)
I have an Apple MacBook Pro (M4 Pro chip – love it!) and I use Intego security software:\u00a0Intego website<\/a>. No I’m not an affiliate and I don’t get a kickback\/fee. It’s just what I use.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n- On Apple devices, .usdz files are almost native format – just doubleclick\u00a0the file after download\/scanning\u00a0and open it! iPads\/iPhone will auto-open the file and display it.\u00a0You can view it in Safari, Notes, share it in emails and messages,\u00a0and more.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Non-Apple devices…You can download it and either use a converter like Meshy AI to convert it to an obj file, or use the online viewer at\u00a0USDZ VIEWER<\/a>, which works very easily. Just open their website and drag the file into it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Please consider it Public Domain – free to use (although you might need to tidy it up a bit).<\/p>\n\n\n\nRoche Abbey 3D model<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beautiful summer day Roche abbey is a lovely little ruin in a shallow valley near Rotherham, in South Yorkshire. It is managed by English Heritage. The ruins No surprise for Tudor history-lovers, the abbey is a ruin. There are impressive north and south transept walls and an interesting ground plan of foundations can be seen. A … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-tudor-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The climax of the novella is set in an abbey in Suffolk (not Roche Abbey) and I wanted to soak up the atmosphere and check the layout before completing the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The abbey’s gatehouse is almost as impressive as the transepts (although not as tall).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The abbey was founded in 1147 and at its height supported a community of around 175 men (about a third being ‘choir monks’ and the rest lay brothers) however there were only 14 monks and an unknown number of novices at the time of the dissolution by King Henry VIII on 23 June 1538.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a short countryside walk around the site, leading to some pretty vantage points; for the abbey itself (see the main picture) and for a waterfall on the nearby stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n I created a 3D model of the south transept, as a .usdz file, and I have hosted it in Dropbox for anyone interested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s the link<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n How to use;<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please consider it Public Domain – free to use (although you might need to tidy it up a bit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beautiful summer day Roche abbey is a lovely little ruin in a shallow valley near Rotherham, in South Yorkshire. It is managed by English Heritage. The ruins No surprise for Tudor history-lovers, the abbey is a ruin. There are impressive north and south transept walls and an interesting ground plan of foundations can be seen. A … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-tudor-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gatehouse
<\/strong><\/h3>\nDissolution
<\/strong><\/h3>\nCountryside walk
<\/strong><\/h3>\n3D Model<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n
\n
I have an Apple MacBook Pro (M4 Pro chip – love it!) and I use Intego security software:\u00a0Intego website<\/a>. No I’m not an affiliate and I don’t get a kickback\/fee. It’s just what I use.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n