St Mary & St Julian

The name Maker means a stone wall, a ruin in Cornish. Another Celtic name is Egloshayle, ‘the church on the estuary’, and the tower is still a landmark commanding the Tamar estuary and Plymouth Sound.

In their western advance across England the Anglo-Saxons halted at the Tamar but in AD 705 King Geraint of Cornwall gave the promontory on the Cornish side of the mouth of the Tamar, roughly from Kingsand to Millbrook, to Sherborne Abbey to keep control of the Tamar mouth in Saxon hands. This was royal land when the Normans came - and remained in Devon until 1844. The Normans installed the Valletorts as tenants of most of the land controlling the mouth of the Tamar, including Maker. From them Maker passed by marriage to the Durnfords and then the Edgcumbes. 

Maker church is first mentioned in 1121 when it was given to Plympton Priory. On the Dissolution of the monasteries the right of appointing the vicar was taken by the Crown. There were earlier churches built on this remote site, to be near the holy well of a 5th century Cornish saint. A little chapel was built over the well in the 14th century and dedicated to St. Julian, patron saint of ferrymen. The little chapel is still hidden in the woods, close to the road leading up from Cremyll ferry. We do not know who the Celtic saint was, probably a follower of St Samson, perhaps St Sulian. At any rate the church is dedicated to St Mary & St Julian; possibly a mix of the ferry saint and the Celt. 

The present church building is a typical 15th century Cornish church. It was a time of much rebuilding in the county, churches designed for preaching the word (the influence of the Lollards) rather than stressing the liturgy. The aisles are the same length as the nave and there is a massive western tower. The Edgcumbe chapel was added in 1874. Various chapels were established in the 19th century with St Paul’s in 1882.

The church's prominent position has made it a landmark for navigators, and its tower was used as an Admiralty signal station during the 18th century and Napoleonic Wars. The various signals used are displayed in the church. A notorious incident was 'the murder in the tower' of a watchkeeper for his silver shoe buckles. The culprit was apprehended and tried at the Exeter assizes. The 1873 restoration included the addition of an Earl of Mount Edgcumbe chapel on the south side. It contains monuments and stained glass windows dedicated to the Earls and their families.