Mining has been a significant factor of Wendron’s life. A church was built at Porkellis in the Victoria era (now Porkellis Village Hall). The decline in the mining led to a significant migration of miners and their families to the New World from Wendron parish.
Agriculture now pre-dominates: there are some 80 farmhouses in the parish, many of which would originally have had farms of about 50 acres.
Wendron Church is two miles north of Helston, on the Helston-Redruth road. The church was built in approximately 1150, and for most of the 850 years since it has enjoyed very close links with Helston which was originally carved out of its parish.
Wendron New Inn is traditionally built from granite and dates from the early 18th Century. The Inn is situated 2 miles north of Helston on the B3297 to Redruth close to the Poldark Mine.
Population. In 1801 Wendron's total population was 3,006. In 1901 it was 3,831. By 1971 the population was 2,600.
1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Wendron as: "WENDRON, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Helston district, Cornwall. The village stands 2¾ miles NNE of Helston, and 7½ SSE of Camborne r. station; and has fairs on 18 May and 27 July. The parish includes Helston, which has a head post-office, designated Helston, Cornwall. Acres, exclusive of Helston, 13,029; inclusive of H., 13,320. Real property, exc. of H., £17,133,-of which £4,282 are in mines; inc. of H., £27,818,-of which £10 are in iron-works, and £60 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, exc. of H., 5,320,-inc. of H., 8,675; in 1861, exc. of H., 6,008,-inc. of H., 9,851. Houses, exc. of H., 1,165; inc. of H., 1,917. The increase of pop., in the rural parts, arose from the working of a tin mine. Druidical circles are at Carnmenellis and the Nine Maidens. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £876.* Patron, Queen's College, Oxford. The vicarage of Helston and the p. curacy of Carnmenellis are separate benefices. There are several dissenting chapels, and charities £8.-The sub-district excludes Helston, but includes Sithney parish, and comprises 18,927 acres. Pop., 9,314. Houses, 1,822."
Wendron (or Gwendron, as it was originally called) is situated in the deanery and Hundred of Kirrier (Kerrier). It was originally bounded on the north by Illogan and Gwennap, on the east by Stithians and Constantine, on the south by Mawgan and Gunwallow, and on the west by Sithney, Crowan and Illogan. The parish of Wendron stretches north-east from the town of Helston which was part of the parish until 1845. Nothing is known about the patron saint of the local church that gave her name to the parish. In the past this was an important tin mining area, and when the mines closed there was severe unemployment. In 1878 the landowner, Lord Robartes, tried to ease the situation by bringing uncultivated land into production. Canon GH Doble, who made a serious study of Cornish and Celtic saints, lived here from 1925 until his death in 1945.