Gretna Green

Coordinates: 55°00′07″N 3°03′58″W / 55.002°N 3.066°W / 55.002; -3.066

Gretna Green
Gretna Green  Gretna Green shown within Scotland
OS grid reference	NY318680
Council area	Dumfries and Galloway
Lieutenancy area	Dumfries
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GRETNA
Postcode district	DG16
Dialling code	01461
Police	Dumfries and Galloway
Fire	Dumfries and Galloway
Ambulance	Scottish
EU Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale
Scottish Parliament	Dumfries
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Gretna Green is a village in the south of Scotland famous for runaway weddings.^[1] It is in Dumfries and Galloway, near the mouth of the River Esk and was historically the first village in Scotland, following the old coaching route from London to Edinburgh. Gretna Green has a railway station serving both Gretna Green and Gretna.^[1] The Quintinshill rail crash, with 227 deaths the worst rail crash in Britain, occurred near Gretna Green in 1915.

Gretna Green is distinct from the larger nearby town of Gretna.^[1] Both are alongside the A74(M) motorway and both are very near to the border of Scotland with England.^[1]

Marriage

The old blacksmith's shop at Gretna Green.

Gretna Green is one of the world's most popular wedding destinations; hosting over 5000 weddings each year or one of every six Scottish weddings. ^[2].

Gretna's famous runaway marriages began in 1753 when an Act of Parliament, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, was passed in England, which stated that if both parties to a marriage were not at least 21 years old, then consent to the marriage had to be given by the parents. This Act did not apply in Scotland, where it was possible for boys to get married at 14 and girls at 12 years old with or without parental consent, see Marriage in Scotland. Since 1929 both parties have had to be at least 16 years old but there is still no consent needed. In England and Wales the ages are now 16 with consent and 18 without.

Before these changes occurred, many elopers fled England, and the first Scottish village they encountered was Gretna Green. The Old Blacksmith's shop, built around 1712, and Gretna Hall Blacksmith's Shop (1710) became, in popular folklore at least, the focal point for the marriage trade. The Old Blacksmith's opened to the public as a visitor attraction as early as 1887.

The local blacksmith and his anvil have become the lasting symbols of Gretna Green weddings. Scottish law allowed for 'irregular marriages', meaning that if a declaration was made before two witnesses, almost anybody had the authority to conduct the marriage ceremony. The blacksmiths in Gretna became known as 'anvil priests'.

Gretna's two Blacksmiths' shops and countless inns and smallholding became the backdrops for hundreds of thousands of weddings. Today there are several wedding venues in and around Gretna Green, from former churches, to purpose built chapels, but the services at all the venues are always performed over an iconic Blacksmiths anvil. Gretna Green endures as one of the world's most popular wedding venues, and thousands of couples come from around the world to be married 'over the anvil' at Gretna Green.

In common law, Gretna Green marriage came to mean, in general, a marriage transacted in a jurisdiction that was not the residence of the parties being married, to avoid restrictions or procedures imposed by the parties' home jurisdiction.^[3] Other towns in which quick, often surreptitious marriages could be obtained came to be known as "Gretna Greens".^[4] These have included Elkton, Maryland,^[5] Reno and, later, Las Vegas, Nevada, all in the United States. A notable Gretna marriage was the second marriage in 1826 of Edward Gibbon Wakefield to the young heiress Ellen Turner, the Shrigley abduction (his first marriage was also to a heiress, but the parents wanted to avoid a public scandal).

In 1856 Scottish law was changed to require 21 days' residence for marriage, and a further law change was made in 1940. The residential requirement was lifted in 1977.^[6] Other Scottish Border villages previously used for these marriages were Coldstream Bridge, Lamberton, Mordington and Paxton Toll.

There is an anvil in Gretna, Manitoba, Canada to symbolize the blacksmith, and the source of its name.

See also

• Ower Bogie
• Las Vegas weddings

References

Further reading

• Ordnance Survey Landranger Map (number 85) - 1:50,000 scale (1.25 inches to 1 mile). ISBN 0-319-22685-9.

External links

• Old Blacksmiths shop visitors center
• Undiscovered Scotland Gretna Green Page
• The Wedding Bureau in Gretna
• Gretna Registry Office
• FallingRain Map - elevation = 1m (Red dots are railways)