大象传媒

Where do I start with Jasper? He was a true gentleman and one of the greatest characters you could have the pleasure to meet.
In my teens and early twenties I spent many nights in the cider house at his farm in The Priding, Saul, on the River Severn. It was a place where many locals gathered after being booted out of The Darrell Arms (now sadly a private house) just five minutes' walk away.
Jasper made the cider with apples from his orchard, and I remember it being drunk out of a jam jar, roughly wiped with a rag to get rid of the dregs from the previous night. Unhygienic, maybe, but I'm sure it helped create fairly robust constitutions in us all.
When I first took my husband, who is no cider drinker, to Jasper's he noticed a distinctive smell, which he put down to the pigs on the farm. It wasn't the pigs.
The cider house was a great meeting place for all kinds of people. Chas Wright of Uley Brewery was there on many occasions, and the cider-fuelled sing-songs while he played his accordion were great fun, though Jasper was one of those rare breeds who disliked music. Of any kind. And so The Darrell Arms never had music playing, whether live or piped through a jukebox. Jasper was far too respected in his local to upset him in any way.
I have a black-and-white photo that I took of him on his stool at the far end of the bar that I must dig out... A great man, sadly missed.

Many years ago I remember, with pleasure drinking with Jasper and another well known character, Joe Hart at the Darrel Arms. Although a water bailiff legand has it that Jasper was an expert poacher being skilled with the use of the "otter"; a shaped piece of wood that using the tide would, by means of rope, take a net in a circular direction to take salmon.Jasper also apparently was a Cape Horner having gone around the Cape in sailing ships. He had two tatoos, a sailing ship on his chest the sails that moved as he breathed and the the famous hunt scene on his back.
The Cider House was lethal, especially if you drank his Oak casked cider, and I remember, just ,waking up in the morning, disorientated, perhaps because of the cider, or maybe because of Peters excellent tunnel grown "herbs".

I think it was the Guadrian that wrote an article on Jasper quoting his reason for not marrying which if I remember rightly was "why keep a cow when you can buy a pint of milk"
The passing of people like Jasper is to be lamented, he was a gentleman, a true character, eccentric and rebel, who had packed a great deal into his life and in his own way enriched others, he was also I think a major investor in Chas's Uley Brewery. What a character!.

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Here is a poem I wrote about Jasper.
My previous posting was removed as it contained a link to another website with an audio reading of the poem. So this time I shan't include it.

Jasper Ely

Dusk falls wearily upon country farms
Man and beast freed from toil, and their bridle
The landlord opens up 鈥淭he Darrell Arms鈥�
and in fields, 鈥楯ohn Deere鈥� tractors stand idle.
A bar stool awaits, its fabric well worn,
For the arrival of 鈥楯asper Ely鈥�
Another evening of tales to adorn,
advice, and beer, will no doubt flow freely.

Sailor, turned farmer, tends a small acre,
Water bailiff and an all around rogue,
Scrumpy, Perry, and strong cider maker
A man who鈥檚 company is quite in vogue.

He will hold court, his company revered
Though his beer belly, comes up to his beard

Priding farm, for many years his abode,
With Gloucester old spots, and other rare breeds.
Down by the Severn, Lower Framilode,
Growing granny smiths, and other strange seeds.
When the hour is late, with all locked inside,
Policeman in the kitchen, with his free beer.
Jasper tells tales of the cruel Severn tide.
Thirst quenched locals gather around to hear.

Tattooed on his back, hounds canter on grass
Hunting horses jump across fence and ditch
Safe from capture the fox runs up his arse
For two pints, he will make its tail twitch.

Then when he has drunk all the beer, he can
Drive home fifty yards, in his Morris Van.

Copyright Steve Riggs 2009