The name means a stone wall, a ruin, in Cornish, but another Celtic name Egloshayle "the church on the estuary" the tower is still a landmark commanding the Tamar Estuary.
The church dedicated to St Mary and St Julian.
In the western advance across England the Anglo-Saxons halted at the Tamar.
There were earlier churches built on this 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 ferryman.
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.(Which held much western land on behalf of the Kings of Wessex.
Note.
This was Royal land when the Norman's came and remained in Devon until 1844.
The Norman's 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.
1121-The church is first mentioned when it is given to Plympton Priory.
The present church is a typical 15th Century Cornish Church. It was a time of much rebuilding,churches built for preaching the word (influence of the Lollards) rather than stressing the liturgy.
On the dissolution of the monasteries the right of appointing the vicar was taken by the crown.
1874-Edgcumbe chapel added.