Hotels in Gretna

Every year over 4,000 weddings take place in Gretna and Gretna Green, which amounts to around one in eight of all weddings that take place in Scotland. And there seems every chance that the twin settlements are between them home to rather more than one in eight of all the anvils remaining in Scotland.

England in the early 1700s was facing serious social problems caused by large numbers of irregular marriages taking place around the country. The solution was an Act of Parliament introduced in 1754 by Lord Hardwicke. This restricted the number of places in which marriages could take place; it tightened up the regulations on recording of marriages; and, most significantly, it outlawed marriages in which either bride or groom were under 21 unless both sets of parents or guardians consented. The new law was rigorously enforced, and clergymen faced 14 years of transportation for breaking it.

But the 1754 Act did not apply to Scotland. Here it remained possible for anyone of 16 or over to get married with or without their parents' consent. And marriages could be carried out without prior notice and in a wide range of venues, without need for a clergyman to officiate. Gretna Green happened to be the first place you reached in Scotland when following the main route north from Carlisle, and so it became a centre for runaway marriages. These were often carried out by the village blacksmith as the tradesman of most respect in the community. And they were often carried out with a sense of urgency driven by the knowledge that one or other set of parents was in hot pursuit.

The act of marriage came to be marked by the striking of his anvil by the blacksmith. This could be seen as symbolising the joining together of two pieces of metal in the heat of the blacksmith's fire. Like them, the couples involved were joined together in the heat of the moment and bound together for eternity.

An English Act of Parliament in 1857 meant that a marriage in Scotland would no longer be recognised in England unless one of the parties to it had been resident in Scotland for at least three weeks prior to the wedding. This slightly reduced the flow of such weddings, and killed off a similar "wedding industry" in Coldstream on the other side of the country. But Gretna Green remained a considerable draw until 1940, when irregular marriages performed by someone other than a clergyman or official registrar were outlawed in Scotland. During the 13 years until 1940 the last "anvil priest" who officiated at the Old Smithy, Richard Rennison, is said to have performed 5147 weddings.