THE BONFIRE STORY

In February 2003 The Great Torrington Cavaliers embarked on a journey, the success of which could never have been imagined.

Cavalier, Tony Hurley, at our AGM, suggested that if we were to undertake another themed bonfire then the 2005 commemoration of Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar might be a good project.

For some time before this the Cavaliers had been quietly mulling over the possibilities of staging another event and this acted as a catalyst to move the idea forward.

There was incredible enthusiasm, which was quite surprising after the 2-½ years Fire of London Bonfire build in 2000, which threw up some considerable logistical problems.

There were some sceptics though, who thought it would be wrong to burn a replica of Nelson’s flagship – but after much debate it was decided to proceed. After all – if you ask anyone what they know of the Battle of Trafalgar the answer is nearly always ‘Nelson’ and ‘The Victory’.

Dick Matthews volunteered to act as project leader because as he had recently retired he felt that he could devote his time and energy into the logistics required for he construction. Tony Easton volunteered to be the project secretary. They both did a magnificent job in supporting the builders all the way through the project.

Two years on we can look back and agree what a good decision that was in so far as that no one could remember a Cavalier event that was so well organised, co-ordinated and supported.

We still had our knockers though. After we announced the plan and following what appeared to be an interesting, fact-finding interview I did for the ‘Portsmouth News’ their headlines that weekend was ‘North Devon Crackpots to Burn The Victory’ and we took a slating. Interestingly they made contact again shortly after the fire congratulating us on our endeavours – the fickle paparazzi!!

To compensate, a reporter (Don Henderson) from the Belfast Telegraph wrote a superb 2 page spread asking the people of Northern Ireland to take a leaf out of the Cavaliers’ book and arrange community bonfires.

Whilst Dick and Tony were working behind the scenes supporting the builders we cracked on putting the posts in place during the late May 2004 Bank Holiday.

The early media interest didn’t wain and interviews on the radio and through the press continued, including two for BFPO, Tarka Hospital Radio, Radio 2, The Daily Telegraph and Mail and even the Scunthorpe Evening Echo to name a few. By now local TV networks had begun to show an interest and interviews were conducted.

Visitors to the site now arrived in their droves in the lead up throughout the summer and John Kelly, Benny Jones and Cavaliers Dave Heywood and Bob Fisher ensured that the tables were fully manned where they sold the draw tickets, programmes, post cards and T-shirts to enthusiastic well wishers. Some lucky ones were given guided tours around the ship depending on availability of ‘official’ guides.

For their sterling efforts both John Kelly and Benny were made ‘honorary‘ Cavaliers .

GMTV filmed on the Friday before the actual bonfire and the report and interviews went around the country live.

On the day of the fire our inspirational founder the late Larry (Lardo) Alexander and Horatio himself must have been smiling on us as the light wind swung around to a favourable direction, the skies cleared and we were well set for a superb evening. Some viewers arrived before 9.30am to set out their camper chairs & picnics waiting for 10 hours for the event to start!

Sky TV arrived during the afternoon and conducted interviews beamed around the country. Later on the Sky directors decided to film all night as well and sent it around the world! So when the collywobbles set in prior to the fantastic ‘Hornpipe’ dance on the top deck, with comments from my fellow dancers that ‘they were to perform in front of about 20000 people’, I had to tell them that the audience was now probably 40 million!

To open the proceedings I had to do the welcome speech bit, and the first glitch of the night occurred. The PA mike had serious feedback so that every word I said came back at me like an echo, which was very off putting. My opening words, then, were just a little disjointed.

I passed the mike to Dick, who experienced the same problem and he had to apologize for sounding drunk! His daughter Meg was actually quite concerned and thought he was having a stroke!

Anyway the problem was fixed and Dick then introduced the builders one at a time onto the top deck. The reception each Cavalier got was amazing and was one of the highlights of the night. If there was an ‘emotional’ moment then that was it.

Following the introductions, the Bideford Sea Cadets performed a cannon loading and firing sequence, then the Hornpipe was performed, Andy Morris’ tableau of the ‘True Victory Tales’ was performed -including appearances by The Yellow Submarine, Captain Pugwash, a giant octopus climbed up the side of the ship and finally Napoleon’s nephew was seen off and sent packing after being found illegally fishing in British waters (apparently the cause of the actual Battle of Trafalgar !!!); and then the stage was set to commence the main event. Bob and Moira Brewers’ commentary set the scene with a historically correct report on the battle and then the pre- fire firework display including a golden waterfall from the top deck, cascades down the masts and a breathtaking ‘Fleur de Lille’ display began.

Hattie and Katie Hill and godfather Nick, the E-Bay winners to light the fire were huddled anxiously by the VIP enclosure ready to light the fuse to start the fire.

Unfortunately glitch no 2 had happened when the cascading sparks had actually set the ship alight by the bow, and it was a frantic effort to light the girl s' torches and get to the fuse before it was too noticeable. It all went well though and once safely returned to their parents the main firework display was started. I must say that young Hattie and Katie really entered into the spirit of things and were an absolute delight to know.

Steve Barnes, based in Barnstaple, provided all the fireworks and pyrotechnic operators and what a show they put on! The congratulatory comments received later were true testament to the tremendous display they had arranged for us.

The fireworks seemed endless during which the Cavaliers were invited to do a ‘lap of honour’ in front of the crowds – another magic moment for us!

As time went on the masts fell, the Albatross flew off and the massed heap of embers glowed in the darkness. Many thousands remained watching until the last masts fell, and the TV crews wound up their post bonfire interviews. Dan Snow (son of TV presenter Jon Snow) had been filming with a unit all day. His final comment to me was “I’ve travelled all over the world and filmed all kinds of events, but I have never seen anything like this in my life, it was awesome!” – praise indeed.

The cleaning up is almost complete reinstating the commons to its original state, the monies are being balanced, and the DVD and videos are being worked on.

Naturally The Cavaliers have had much praise thrown at them, but at the end of the day it was very much a community event. The people who turned up on the night…The Rotary Club, Appledore Pirates, Torrington Rugby Club, the ever helpful Army Cadets and many friends all contributed to stewarding and ensuring a safe environment for the thousands who came to watch.

All the authorities were extremely helpful and at the post mortem held a week later with them all, they couldn’t fault the planning and implementation of those plans on the night.

We made a few mistakes, would do some things slightly differently next time and learnt an awful lot in the process but all in all are very proud of our achievement and delighted with the final outcome declaring a profit of over £70,000.

Here's to the next one!
Chris Stacey (Chairman, Great Torrington Cavaliers)