An old anvil stands in a glass case in the middle of an exhibition room in the village of Gretna Green in west Scotland. Outside, tourist coaches fill the car park while traffic thunders along the busy motorway as it crosses the border between England and Scotland. The heavy iron anvil is battered and misshapen from centuries of use by blacksmiths. But that is not why it is famous. This is an original ‘wedding anvil’ that symbolises the romantic tradition that has made the name of Gretna Green recognised worldwide.
LOVE ON THE RUN
The story begins back in 1754, when a change in the law in England meant that young couples had to be married in church and could no longer marry without parental consent until they were 21 years old. Although the law was designed to protect teenagers and young adults from unsuitable partnerships, it encouraged many of them to climb on board the stagecoach northwards towards Scotland. Here the law still allowed 16-year-olds to marry without their parents agreeing.
THE ANVIL PRIESTS
First stop on the stagecoach route was the Famous Blacksmith’s Shop at Gretna Green. Here the horses and carriages could be checked, shoed, rested and made ready for their journey. For the couples on board it was a moment of joy as they stepped inside to hold hands across the anvil and exchange their marriage vows. When the blacksmith brought down his hammer onto the anvil, the loud ringing sound signified that another marriage had been made. These blacksmiths became known as “anvil priests”.
Over the Anvil
In the 18th century, a change in English law caused Gretna Green village, just over the Scottish border, to became famous (or infamous) as the destination of thousands of underage runaway couples who wanted to get married as quickly as possible. Today Gretna Green retains the tradition, and attracts up to 2,000 couples a year. They come to be married ‘over the anvil’, in the old timbered Blacksmith’s Shop where the ceremonies were originally held. Susan Clark is director of Gretna Green Ltd, a wedding, hotel and hospitality business. Her family has owned the Famous Blacksmith’s Shop for generations, and, as she told Speak Up, its legend began with England’s 1754 Marriage Act.
Susan Clark (Northern English accent): 1754 was an act that was passed in Parliament. It was changing the laws, the laws of England. In England you needed to be 21 with parental consent to be married. In Scotland the law was still 16 without parental consent. It was brought into force in England to stop the marriages that were happening in London near the prisons. But what they hadn’t anticipated is that it would have started this flow of people that wanted to be married. It wasn’t [necessarily] somebody that was after a young lady’s dowry or something – so a bad marriage in a family’s eyes. There were lots of couples that were genuinely in love, were 16, wanted to be married, and they could come across the border into Scotland and be married.
WORTHY PROFESSIONS
But why Gretna Green in particular? And why get married in a Blacksmith’s shop rather than a church? Clark explains.
Susan Clark: Gretna Green because it was the first village in Scotland, on the west side of the country, that you came across. The Blacksmith’s Shop – an act of fate, almost! It’s just because that was the predominant building in the village. And in those days any profession, like a blacksmith or a joiner or people that were well renowned in a village, that was enough for them to conduct the ceremony.
EASY WED
Today up to two thousand couples a year are married here in the quick and easy ‘over the anvil’ style, says Clark. Although it is a different sort of couple attracted to Gretna Green now.
Susan Clark: They’ve heard about the history and the magic of Gretna Green and often, in this day and age, the couples that come to be married possibly have been married before, they’ve had all the razzmatazz and the expense of the first time round and just want to come quietly, focus on themselves rather than the pressures of families round about on these important days, and they come in their thousands. This year we will organise nearly two thousand weddings in the year, about 1,500 of them will take place in the Blacksmith’s Shop. We have another marriage room down at the manor house in Gretna Green as well. The biggest number is from England, absolutely, a lot from Scotland as well, but from America, Australia, all sorts of European countries. So yes, it’s a worldwide name that is recognised.
TRUE ROMANCE
But Gretna Green is no Las Vegas, Clark insists. Both the ceremony and its venue retain their authenticity and romance.
Susan Clark: On the whole, a Gretna Green wedding is a very simple, low-cost wedding compared to weddings around the country. We can do a very lavish high-cost wedding if that��s what’s required, but on the whole people are coming to Gretna Green, they want to keep it simple, no fuss, concentrate on each other, and to marry. Weddings that are conducted within the Blacksmith’s Shop are done ‘over the anvil’, where your hands would be sitting on the anvil as the ceremony is conducted. It absolutely is full of magic and romance. And you see it written in [on] the faces of the couples that come to be married. They just get a feel about [for] this quaint little wedding venue that is the Blacksmith’s Shop. The walls almost speak to you; it has a most extraordinary atmosphere.