GRETNA GREEN.
MARRIAGE BUSINESS. NEW BLACKSMITH STARTS. LONDON, Jan. 9. A new blacksmith has entered the marriage business at Gretna Green. An eloping couple, Audrey Patricia Smith (16) and Sidney Swan (25), of Clacton-on-Sea, were married by torchlight over an anvil at Gretna Hall Inn, 100 yards from the smithy where Richard Rennison, the hitherto undisputed Gretna Green blacksmith, had married hundreds of couples. The new smith is the innkeeper, David Mackintosh, who states: “My forge is the original one, and I have decided to reopen the smithy. It seemed foolish to turn away good money. “I charge a guinea for a marriage and lialf-a-crown for witnesses, and I expect to get a good run. My hotel is convenient for couples to stay overnight.”. Rennision retorted: “I am not worrying. My business is on a solid foundation and is well organised.” The Morison Committee in 1936 condemned Gretna weddings and the Church of Scotland declared them a social evil. Legislation to abolish them, however, lias not yet been introduced. The principle of the Scots law is that consent makes marriage and that banns are not required; hut one of the parties has to reside in Scotland for 21 days previously.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19380124.2.32
Bibliographic details
Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 47, 24 January 1938, Page 2
Word Count
200GRETNA GREEN. Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 47, 24 January 1938, Page 2
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Manawatu Standard. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in