Steve (002)

It is with great sadness to tell you that Cavalier Steve Young, has recently passed away. 

Steve was our chairman from 2012 to 2017 and during that time guided us through two feature bonfires and numerous other events and community based projects. His unique ability to offer sound and reasoned argument earned him great respect. He steered us on the right path, steadied the ship and led the Cavaliers with so much pride and enthusiasm. Steve was passionate about his home town of Great Torrington, the Cavaliers and our role in the community. 

His untimely death has shocked us all and he will be greatly missed. Our love and thoughts go to all his family and friends.

THE PILGRIM GRANDFATHERS ARE GETTING ON THEIR BIKES TO CYCLE 400 MILES FOR CHARITY!

2020 is the 400th Anniversary of the Mayflower sailing and the 50th anniversary of the
Torrington Cavaliers, a long established fundraising group who are known nationally and
internationally for building spectacular giant sized themed bonfires. For the past three
years we have been building a life-size replica of the Mayflower ship which will be burned
on the 28th August 2021. (New date due to Covid 19) We are officially an "On Board” partner of the Mayflower 400
team who are coordinating the national commemoration and the links with the USA and
the Netherlands. The burning of the Mayflower is hoping to raise in excess of £100k for
local charities.

Sadly we recently had 2 incidents on the bonfire site:

There was a young man who climbed the security fencing to gain access to the site and climbed up onto the ship, no damage was caused but the fencing is up to protect the public and keep them out of the building site. Our CCTV system had good coverage of the bench the group were sat on and the 1 person who trespassed and we have a name of that person.

The second incident; someone broke into our charity donation box and stole the money with in it. Our CCTV system covers that location and we have downloaded the footage from the time frame and are currently viewing it to find out who the offender was.

Fortunately these incidents are not frequent but it deeply saddening for us all who put a lot of our own time into this only for someone to do something like this.

Our site is surrounded by security fencing, visited on a random basis by security guards and is fully covered by HD night vision CCTV.

Onwards and upwards we hope to be back on site building gain very soon, we have missed it.

Cavaliers Pumpkin competition 2020

Pumpkin 2020

We can't do any bonfire building at the moment, so we've resurrected a popular competition from a few years ago - GROW A GIANT PUMPKIN! Simply pay a £5 entry fee and we'll let you have a baby pumpkin plant that you can nourish and grow, and the biggest pumpkin will win a CASH prize! The weigh-in will hopefully be on the 1st November. Unfortunately, we can't courier plants so all the babies have to be collected from Torrington. Please call Dick Matthews on 01805 622573 or Chris Tattersall (who has the plants) 01805 622243 to register and find out details of how to collect your plant.

The entry fee can be paid via PayPal or cash on collection.

When we build a very large bonfire we need lots of fuel for it and good clean pallets are ideal for this purpose. They can also be used in a structural basis to hold the structure together.

Atlas packaging have been keeping us supplied for many years now and we are truly grateful for their support.

A Few words from our sponsor:

Seth Conway of Atlas packaging shortly after we erected the 1st parts of the masts:

We’re delighted to be helping the Great Torrington Cavaliers with their fantastic replica of the Mayflower.  Well done on a big milestone and we look forward to keeping you supplied with pallets.

We are proud to have WM Iron work as one of our sponsors again for this build. They are helping us with the steel braces to join the masts and other fixings too. Thank you! 

Please visit their website: www.wmi.uk.com

A few words from Stuart West (Director):

When the Cavaliers asked WM Ironwork for Support of the 2020 Bonfire, We were only too happy to help!

The Cavaliers over the years have raised a great deal of money for Local charities and been a great influence in the Local town of Torrington.

WM Ironwork has always been proud that we employ North Devon Based personnel and feel it’s very important to support our local area.

The Bonfire is a great way of raising money with the added benefit of a great enjoyable day for the people of North Devon.

We are proud to of been asked to help the Cavaliers!