LOVERS ESCAPE TO SCOTLAND

In 1754 the English government passed a law which prevented couples under the age of 22 from marrying.
The young lovers learned to circumvent this law by fleeing together to Scotland, where girls aged 12 and boys aged 14 were allowed to marry.
Furthermore, under Scottish law, any person could celebrate a union with a simple "marriage by declaration" or handfasting ceremony.
In order to do so, therefore, the two lovers needed to request two witnesses and the ceremony man only had to make sure that the two people in front of him were not already married to another person. For this reason, many young people from all over England began to flee to get within two miles of the English border and fulfill their dream of love through the Handfasting ritual.
The blacksmiths of the city of Gretna Green configured themselves as "priests of the anvil" and made themselves available to perform the ceremony in exchange for a few guineas, or pints of beer.
Blacksmith's Scottish anvil hammer soon became famous throughout Britain, and there were tales everywhere of how its sound forged the lives of two lovers into an unbreakable bond for eternity.
The Blacksmiths Shop was built in 1713 and is located in the heart of the village, at the junction of five old roads, which were the main crossings between Scotland and England.
In 1754 runaway couples began arriving, meeting at the crossroads next to the Blacksmiths Shop, which took over the role of Blacksmith Priest where the local blacksmith performed ceremonies on the now legendary anvil in his small shop.
The Blacksmith's wife and local people offered themselves as witnesses.
There is an 1843 Times article in which the blacksmith claimed to have performed about 3,500 weddings in 25 years.
In 1940 the institution of Scottish Handfasting was banned by the British, and only in 1977 were couples allowed to marry without parental consent at the age of 18.
Even today, the small Scottish village of Gretna Green carries on the tradition, and around 5000 couples go there every year to unite or renew their vows by tying their hands together through Handfasting.
Gretna Green has remained the iconic symbol of romance: without this small village, the love of so many young people would have been impossible.
Legend has it that touching the famous anvil brings good luck in love.