Holsworthy is a market town and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England, 36 miles (58 km) west of Exeter.

Other recorded spellings are Haldwwurth 1228, Halleswrthia -worth(e) -wordi (late 12th–1291), Haldeswrthy -wrthi -worth (1277–1389), Holdesworthe (1308), Healdesworthe (c. 1320), Hyallesworthi (1326), and Houlsworthy (1675).

John Holland, Duke of Exeter, possessed it by a grant from the Crown, and in 1487 the manor was given for life to Margaret, Countess of Richmond.

During the English Civil War Holsworthy was held by Royalists forces until, on 17 February 1646, Sir Thomas Fairfax, after his victory at Torrington, sent a party to take possession of the town.

The court leet was one of the highest and oldest tribunals of English common law and was presided over by the Portreeve.

It had jurisdiction over petty offences and the civil affairs of the district, and performed a number of administrative functions, such as collecting tolls and dues paid by traders and later military levies.

It covers local services such as maintaining the town's footpaths, parks, gardens and war memorial, and running the weekly Pannier Market and annual Holsworthy in Bloom contest.

Turning dairy farm slurry into biogas, the plant has an installed capacity of 2.1 MW.

In response the Ruby Country Initiative was formed as a non-profit partnership to further a more robust, sustainable local economy and create an area identity.

[22] On the first day, the 1614 charter granting a fair by King James I is proclaimed by the town crier on the spot where the Great Tree of Holsworthy stood in Stanhope Square.

[23] The annual presentation of the "Pretty Maid" is made at noon on the first day of St Peter's Fair.

This results from a legacy made in the will of the Reverend Thomas Meyrick, of Carta Martha, near Launceston, who died 27 May 1841.

[24] Under the terms of the will, the legacy was to be invested to pay a dividend of £3 10s on 5 July annually to the churchwarden of Holsworthy.

[25] The annual one-day Holsworthy and Stratton Agricultural Show is a major event for the town and the local farming community.

After the Second World War, a permanent site was bought north of Stanhope Park and became known as the Show Field.

It is now held at Killatree Cross, 1.2 miles (1.9 km) west of Holsworthy, on the third Thursday in August.

[28] Holsworthy Vintage Vehicle and Engine Rally dating from 1987 has become a two-day event that attracts exhibitors and visitors from a wide area.

[30] Holsworthy is twinned with Aunay-sur-Odon in the Calvados department in the Lower Normandy region of north-west France.

[31] In the centre of the town square stands a stone Market Cross symbolising the right to trade.

The cross that originally sat on the top of the structure broke off decades ago and has been replaced by an ornate lamp.

[38] The first building on the site was probably a Norman Oratory from about 1130, replaced in about 1250 by a church with tower, nave, south aisle and chancel built in the Early English style.

[31] It also gained fame from Samuel Sebastian Wesley's music, Holsworthy Church Bells – composed for the chiming drum.

[31] A legend states that the tower was built on top of a live human sacrifice to ensure a strong foundation.

[44] A Grade II listed building, it was built in 1909–1910 in Early English style by two local firms, Samuel Parsons (also the architect) and William F. Glover.

The church, on the site of an earlier chapel of about 1876, retains its appearance, but adds a two-stage octagonal crenelated tower with a spire and a two-light window at its base.

The church and hall have shallow raking buttresses and slate roofs with decorative ridge tiles.

The five-bay hammerbeam, ceiled and boarded roof has pierced braces, green marble corbels and metal ties.

Internal fittings include a pitch pine pulpit, communion table and benches.

[45] There was a Catholic church, St Cuthbert Mayne Chapel of Ease, at Derriton, Holsworthy.

Since its closure in December 2005, the Catholic community has celebrated Mass at Holsworthy parish church.