It is the most southerly church in mainland Britain and is about ten miles (16 km) south of Helston.

The church is dedicated to St Winwaloe, who was the third son of a Cornish couple who moved to Brittany.

There is no evidence that he visited Cornwall, and the church may have been founded by one of the monks from Landévennec, or perhaps by St Winwaloe's elder brother, Wennac.

[2] The oldest part of the current church building is the 11th-century Norman south doorway, which has serpentinite columns.

The font is granite, inscribed "IHC and D RIC BOLHAM ME FECIT c1404", and set on four small 19th-century syenite shafts.

[citation needed] Other 19th-century features include the glass in the west and northwest windows of the north aisle.

Four of the graves are of seafarers who survived the sinking of the cargo ship Gairsoppa on 17 February 1941, followed by 13 days in an open lifeboat, but were killed on 1 March when their boat capsized in Caerthillian Cove.

[8][9][10][11] The last Cornish language sermon was preached here in 1674,[12][13] though this claim has also been made for the churches of Towednack and Ludgvan.