Long Rock

OS grid referenceSW497315Unitary authorityCeremonial countyRegionCountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townPENZANCEPostcode districtTR20Dialling code01736PoliceDevon and CornwallFireCornwallAmbulanceSouth Western UK Parliament 50°07′44″N 5°30′02″W / 50.12891°N 5.50067°W / 50.12891; -5.50067

Long Rock (Cornish: Carrek Hyr) is a village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Penzance and 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Marazion in the civil parish of Ludgvan. The village is named after the tidal Long Rock just offshore at grid reference SW498308.^[1] Long Rock is on the shore of Mount's Bay at the centre of the three-mile beach which stretches from Penzance to Marazion. The beach is backed by a seawall along which runs the main line railway and the South West Coast Path.

A dual carriageway bypass carries the A30 road north of the village and the land beside the road has been extensively developed with light industry and a retail park. Penzance Heliport is situated between Long Rock and Penzance. The original heliport was demolished in 2014 and a Sainsburys supermarket, car park and trading estate was built on the site. In 2019 new heliport was built on a site opposite the heliport trading estate a hundred yards away from the original heliport and in the spring of 2020 commenced a scheduled service to the Scilly Isles.

The nearest primary schools are located in Gulval and Ludgvan, with the nearest secondary school, Humphry Davy School, in Penzance. Village facilities include a shop, post office, two pubs (one offering B & B), a care home, an equestrian and agricultural supplier, a hall which can be hired, two motorbike training places, a car rental business and several car sales businesses. The industrial estate contains a glass merchant, a computer repairer, a vet and a solar energy firm.

Long Rock Playing Field Association recently received a grant to install new play equipment. Penwith District Council built a new 'amenity area' in a field close to the A30.

Marazion Marsh, an RSPB nature reserve leased from Lord St Levan, is situated half-a-mile east of the village.^[2]

The local community radio station is Coast FM (formerly Penwith Radio), which broadcasts on 96.5 and 97.2 FM.^[3]

Long Rock is the site of a locomotive shed. Formerly catering to steam locomotives, it is the most south-westerly depot on the former Great Western Railway's system. Now known as Penzance TMD, it is a refuelling and servicing depot for diesel locomotives and HST sets.^[4]

Long Rock has regular bus services to Penzance and Truro and is on The Cornish Way network of cycle paths.

William Couch Jeffery (1826-1899),^[5] was from Long Rock and was champion middleweight^[6] of Cornwall for a quarter of a century including the 1840s and 1850s.^[7][8][9] He won many prizes in Cornwall as well as London.^[9] He was initially a miner and then a market gardener and fisherman.^[5] He spent some time in Australia and it was said that he had beaten the Australian champion wrestler, who was an Irishman after walking 160 miles to the match.^[10][9]