Over two years ago in July 1998 a problem was identified with a row of fir trees situated at Great Torrington School and they were deemed to be unsafe. Quotes were obtained for their removal which amounted to around £3000 - £4000. Coincidentally the Torrington Cavaliers had just decided on their plans for The Millennium Bonfire Project and a source of fir poles was needed for the main structures.

Great Torrington School were approached with an offer of help from the Cavaliers to take down and remove the trees to the bonfire site at cost, thereby satisfying our need for poles and saving the school a considerable amount of money.

The actual theme for the bonfire had still to be decided and ideas and suggestions such as Windsor Castle, York Minster, an enormous ‘globe of the Earth’ and the space shuttle were all discussed. The majority decision was for ‘The Great Fire of London’.

Work began almost immediately, setting the first poles in place once permission had been granted by the Commons Conservators. For this project to be a success we had to approach two of our strongest supporters – W H Tolley and SEL Clarke – without whose support in supplying materials and plant we could not have began this two year project.

Due to work commitments, young families to care for and other restraints it was obvious from the start that the Cavaliers workforce was going to be somewhat depleted from those who worked on the 1996 Church reconstruction, but never the less work continued as best as the cold, wet winter months of 1998 allowed. Already, at an early stage, local builders and pallet users were supplying their building ‘debris’ for us to pick through and sort enabling us to continue the strutting and supporting of beams to take the outside cladding and interior ceilings. Progress, though, was slow during the early months.

In order to fund the building work a number of fund raising events were organised by local groups and pubs and sponsorship was sought for the shop buildings we planned to construct.

Our first approach to Torrington’s Black Horse Inn, certainly in existence during the period of the Fire of London, was very positive and sponsorship of £1000 was easily agreed. Rough plans were then drawn up by Lee Smithson, to apply for planning permission, which was granted.

The Winter of ’98 and most weekends were spent supporting the pole structures, adding bracing and sifting through the ever increasing deliveries of pallets, roof trusses and assorted lengths of wood. We were fortunate in that Torrington’s Pannier Market and Castle Hill projects were underway and their refurbishment meant a steady supply of trusses enabling us to roof the Black Horse.

As the building progressed through 1999, other sponsors came forward for the shops, which were now taking shape. Reggie and Steve Ware took on the Butchers Shop, PHC Supplies the ironmongers and Barbery’s Pasties, the Bakers. Local school children and artists lent their support in equipping the shops and a varied range of papier-mâché chickens, hogs head, sausages, pies, pasties – some weird looking rats and some decent looking rats began to arrive on site for display. Webbers put up a ‘for sale’ sign above one of the shops. From the top of the Commons it was soon apparent that the structure needed some more height and depth and it was decided to build St Paul’s Cathedral.

Now, as most people know St Pauls is a ‘domed’ Cathedral but that wasn’t the case at the time of The Great Fire. In fact the original had a spire that, after being struck by lighting some years before had fallen into disrepair. The lead had been removed to make shot for the Civil War and our team of builders had to use some ‘artistic’ licence in their reconstruction.

Before we could continue work, however, we had to make a plea for more helpers, which unfortunately clashed with the arrival of Charlie Dimmock and her team to develop the Vicarage garden in town. Her army grew and unfortunately ours didn’t. We did though, recruit one new member, Mike Hodge, who travelled in nearly every weekend (sometimes on foot) from Little Torrington. He proved to be a valuable asset. Also some members of the ‘Torrington Garrison’ – our 1646 living history group arrived to help when time allowed. In particular Brian Pitts, Steve Young and Bernie Wittram (our Mayor) were instrumental in helping the project along.

As soon as each building was erected, other volunteers turned up armed with paint brushes to add the finishing touches. Rita Deacon did a terrific job on assorted brickwork effects and window scenes for the ‘ house of pleasure ‘ and jail. Jackie Palmer, Anne Tattersall and George Stacey also all helped to bring the buildings to life.Young Devon and Daylin Brown painted everything in sight ( including themselves) and Zac and McGrady Morris had many an adventure in the narrow streets.

Lee Smithson set about the task of constructing the spire for St Pauls whilst Mike Hodge and Steve Young, often with the help of Paul Hoyle, concentrated on the inside of the building. Steve’s wife Pene had been heavily involved in the construction of the Vicarage Garden whilst Charlie Dimmock was away filming, but still found time with her ‘young’ family to make curtains, alter cloths, and stained glass windows. One window depicted Bob the Builder and was dedicated to our Captain’s 2-year-old grandson Freddy. He could be often seen at the weekend knee deep in mud, eating his hot-dog and sporting his favourite Cavalier T-shirt. He will be a JCB driver when he grows up! Brian Smith of KAS Crane hire was called upon to help raise the Spire onto its resting-place; an event captured on television, which generated much local interest. The fact that this massive crane got stuck in the mud and had to be hauled out through a hastily created ‘break’ in the low banking resulted in a weekend of landscaping and re-grassing to return the commons to its rightful state. Once the spire was in place – the Union Jack hoisted and our ‘ideas’ man John Palmer had placed ‘Baloo’ the bear to one of the spires to keep guard (he was also responsible for the satellite dish and numerous other touches of humour throughout the site), more roofing was added and ‘Palmer Arch’ was constructed. The arch was named after Captain of the Cavaliers, Mike Palmer, who led the small band of workers, often from a vantage point many feet up in the roofs, with commitment, encouragement and enthusiasm. I can honestly say that without Mike the work would never had been completed.

With regard to ‘Baloo’ – John Palmer had tried to find a King Kong look-alike but after foraging through numerous car boot sales could only find a bear. One amusing anecdote from this was when a know-it-all Londoner came down and asked the reason for the bear. One of our team, Chris Tattersall went off on a wild story about bear baiting in 1666, where one escaped and sought Sanctuary in St Pauls. Our visitor was spell-bound and by now Chris was away with the seagulls continuing his detailed account of how a bear came to be on St Pauls Spire! The visitor, who commented that he could recall reading about this incident in a book some years ago went away quite happy with stories to relate to his Grandchildren! Balloo was eventually sold for £10 to a good home and now lives happily in New Street with his new family!

One afternoon a local doctor, Paul Bangay, arrived and offered to create some stained glass windows for some of the smaller panes in two of the windows. We eagerly accepted his offer and some weeks later arrived with five or so beautifully sculptured windows depicting the initials of some of the builders and Torrington Emblem, the fleur de lille. A future delivery contained more initials, gargoyles and of course Bart Simpson! These windows were removed before the blaze and kept as souvenirs for the main builders.

Another visitor, an ex-school teacher at Great Torrington School, John Hayes who was on holiday from his home on a Greek Island offered to construct the authentic oven for the Pudding Lane bakery. Some while later the oven was constructed, painted and stocked with buns. It looked very impressive. Helen Bailes, local artist and potter, asked to ‘fire’ some pots & jugs in the blaze and a potter’s oven was dug into the ground as an experiment. I understand that the final result was very good and the pottery came out very well. Complete with an infill of Fire of London Ash!!

All the way through construction we had been visited by members of the public, local and holidaymakers who offered encouragement & praise. A visitor’s book was placed at the Lichgate along with photos of previous bonfires, and by 26th August 2000 was almost full. Visitors from Gambia, Thailand, USA, Bulgaria and the United Arab Emirates (to name a few) all added their comments. The most used phrase was ‘shame to burn it’ and what perhaps people didn’t realise was that just over 2 years previously we had decided to build a BONFIRE! It was built to burn!

The donation box netted over £2,750 and 5700 drawbooks were sold (28,500 tickets). Another draw for a painting of the Bonfire scene complete with people in period costume was another sell out with 1000 tickets sold.

To officially ‘light’ the bonfire we had originally invited Ken Livingstone who declined due to holiday commitments, Glenda Jackson who declined through apparent apathy, Steven Norris (runner-up to Ken Livingstone in the election), who declined through business commitments, the cast of Blue Watch – London's Burning who were too expensive. We also thought of Mike Reed & Barbara Windsor (Frank & Peggy) – but eventually were directed to Robert Eve, Chief Commoner of the City of London who graciously accepted an invitation. Robert kindly presented us with a cheque for £1,000 to add to the charity fund. Torrington ‘Barmaid of the year’ Susan Street also assisted on the night.

One of our normal firework sponsors unfortunately couldn’t donate to the cause as much as was ‘promised’ and an appeal went out for help. The response was very good and soon the £5,000 required was raised. We had booked Roybern Fireworks again, who did such a magnificent job on the Church Bonfire of ’96. Roy and Bernard, the official pyrotechnics, were a joy to work with. They obviously love their display work and laughed all through the day setting the rockets and bombs, and rigging the buildings. The end result was absolutely superb and they took their bows to the generous applause of 20,000 onlookers. A moment to savour!

To wind up this brief account, in hindsight the actual construction was the easy bit. The negotiations with all the authorities, the site meeting, do’s and don’ts and some inane comments & suggestions from the ‘jobsworth’s made the behind the scenes arrangements very difficult and stressful, particularly to the Cavaliers Chairman, Dave Kelly, who had to shoulder most of this side of the project.

There was talk from some quarters that this would be The Cavaliers swansong and no more events would be staged. However the Cavalier membership were not party to some of these comments and plans are already underway to stage The New Years Eve celebrations in the town square again , small bonfire and firework display on November 5th at Gt. Torrington Rugby Club – “just to keep our eye in” and hopefully another major project will be underway possibly by the Spring of 2002.The Bonfire ‘itch ‘ is gradually returning !

There were dark, depressing days, when huddled under the overhangs of the buildings, cold hail dripping down our necks when only three volunteers turned up for ‘duty’ that the decision to abandon the project totally was close to being made. However, on the night when the streets of Torrington were packed with thousands of people coming to appreciate the previous 2 years of effort , when the fields around the commons were lit up by all those cars which made the journey, and to see the enjoyment shared between the onlookers and the Cavaliers builders it was all so worth-while.