AS the clock struck noon, Holsworthy's best kept secret was disclosed to the town's folk last week.

Residents and visitors gathered outside St Peter and Paul's Parish Church to see Lucy Durling honour the 170-year-old tradition.

Unique to the town, the Pretty Maid ceremony has prevailed since 1841, when Rev Thomas Meyrick instigated it by bequeathing a sum of £100 to a 'Pretty Maid' charity.

He stipulated that the chosen young lady would be a Holsworthy girl under the age of 21, and that she should be 'generally esteemed as the most deserving, the most handsome, and the most noted for her quietness and attendance at church'.

Lucy, a former pupil of Clawton Primary School, attends Holsworthy Community College and studies travel and tourism, art, business studies, textiles, drama, English, maths and science.

For the full report, and a round up of the area news and sport, please see this week's edition of the 'Post'.