07-10-2017, 08:54 PM
1
Gretna Green holiday elopement thread. Warning, adult themes.
After our Ireland adventure, we took the faerie to Scotland and then drove down to Gretna Green where my Lovely Cousin and I planned to elope, with her parents in hot pursuit.Well actually, they were extemely close behind, in the back seats to be precise.
Gretna Green became the place to go for English and Welsh sixteen to twenty one year olds who wanted to marry without their parents consent when the Marriage Act was introduced in 1754.
We visited the old Smithy where many marriages of young lovers on the run were carried out, and has now been turned into a combined museum, wedding venue, gift shop, and factory outlet experience.
I was worried that the museum might be a bit tacky, but I actually found the history of the place and the exhibits quite interesting.
Some period wedding dresses.
The original anvil used in the eighteenth century. I'm not sure how you are supposed to beat a red hot ploughshare into shape with it inside a glass cabinet though.
The smithy, still used as a wedding venue, but with replacement anvil.
The Zumerzet runaways! She was nineteen when we got married. Had we not had her parents consent a hundred years and more ago we could have been making a run for Gretna ourselves.
One of several storyboards depicting some of the interesting and real events that resulted in a marriage in the smithy. One even involved John Wesley, he of the Wesleyan Chapel fame.
Sometimes the pursuers were so close behind the runaways that there wasn't time to organise a ceremony, so they were told to get into this bed. When their parents or agents arrived they would think the relationship was already consummated and the girl's, and therefore the family's reputation would be ruined.
Consequently they would be allowed to marry after all.
Note the baby's cot, and all the implications it was meant to convey.
Another of the four wedding venues within the building complex with an anvil specifically commissioned for but not limited to same sex marriages.
A close up of part of the very lifelike murial backdrop depicting runaways fighting off their pursuers which is allegedly based on a true event.
One of the more traditional venues.
It's not over until the paperwork is done.
The final venue, the Tack Room.
A gigantic glass case to protect the period carriages within.
More of the folk museum.
The carriage museum.
Four passengers inside and sixteen on top.
Luxury. Only passengers within, drivers and footmenpersons without.
A more affordable version of transport.
... and now, what every high class wedding venue needs, a gift shop.
A whisky still full of grain in a bottle.
A world in whisky, or more precisely, whisky in a world.
One piper piping. At least that's what I hope he is doing since his sporran is directly in front of the spigot.
Don't drink and drive.
A barrel of fun.
Pure filth! The Outlaws after 42 years together.
A tartan made for two.
Beauty and the ... scruffy bloke.
I am capable of scrubbing up a bit though when the need arises.
Whilst the smithy is now mainly a quaint place to get married, it still occasionally receives sixteen to eighteen year olds who want to marry without parental consent.
After all this excitement, we headed south across the border.
08-10-2017, 02:47 AM
6
Re: Gretna Green holiday elopement thread. Warning, adult themes.
Originally Posted by ruthio
->
What a fantastic thread!! Great photos Fruity, well done, really entertaining!
Hear.
Hear and I second of course every word of yours Ruthio
So THAT's our Fruit Cake is it?
How gorgeous..
I think i'm in love!
Can I please have a slice?
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
