Gwinear is a small village in West Cornwall and like many villages in this part of Cornwall prospered from the mining boom in the 18th and 19th centuries, due to rich deposits of copper with smaller seams of tin and silver. The population almost doubled between 1801 and 1861.

Gwinear church is dedicated to  St Winierus or Gwinear who, legend has it, was the son of an Irish pagan king and is reputed to have been slaughtered together with his companions by the Cornish pagan king Theodoric in the 6th Century.

Parish records indicate that several members of the Grenfell family were baptised in Gwinear between 1815-1834.