It is difficult, if not impossible, to be specific about this district’s pre-history. One can only consider the known facts relevant to the Country as a whole, and assume that the South-West peninsula experienced similar conditions:—.

Mesolithic Age (C6,000—C3,500 BC), when the population was semi-nomadic, engaged mainly in hunting and fishing, but with some domestication of animals. Flints were in use as primitive tools.

Neolithic Age (C3,500—C3,000 BC). Main economy changed from hunting and fishing to one of mixed farming, especially after the clearance of forest land, with both pastoral and arable farming taking hold. People arrived from the Mediterranean shores, pottery was mastered, flint tools and stone axes were used, rudimentary settlements were formed, with walls and ditches, and communal tombs have been found.

Bronze Age (C3,000—C400 BC), bringing further visitors from Spain, with daggers,swords and axes of bronze, and luxuries started to appear from Ireland, gold, ornaments, beads, rings and bracelets. The Beaker people were present. individual tombs were encountered, asserting the place of the individual. It is to this age that Holsworthy can first stake claim with it’s Ugworthy Barrow, sited at Ugworthy Moor, some three miles north-west of Holsworthy. The tumuli are of the round type, and thought to be the burial place of only a few individuals, not battle burials.

Iron Age (C400 BC—C45AD), brought the Celts from Europe, living in tribes and governed by chiefs, a warlike people. Hill forts and cliff castles were built, probably as places of retreat rather than permanent homes. Under-ground caves, known as fogous, were used for hiding their wealth. Cornish tin-streaming supplied markets in Ireland and the Mediterranean. Huts built of wattle and daub were grouped in villages, and small fields were cultivated. Existence of the Dumnonii people.

Roman Age (C45—C400 AD). Mixed farming remained the basis of the economy. Christianity introduced, and well established by 350AD. There is some suggestion that the Holsworthy—Hatherleigh road was of Roman origin, but this is unproven as yet.

Saxon Age (C400AD—1066AD). St Patrick did much to convert the pagan west during the 5th Century, and many Welsh missionaries were found in the north of the peninsula. The Saxons reached Devon in 682AD, when King Constantine “drove the Brittons as far as the sea”.