Anvil weddings are facing the hammer

mentary legislation, Gretna and the adjacent hamlet of Gretna Green would be quiet backwaters. Thanks to their location just north of the border, though, they are still holding their own as the conjugal capital of the UK. Gretna is the ''Marriage Mecca'', where one out of every 10 Scottish civil weddings is conducted

- 252 years after runaway

couples began to head for Scotland following the prohibition of marriages by declaration

in England.

You don't need to be a soothsayer to predict that more

couples will be joined in mat-rimony at the Gretna registration centre this year than last year's 3586. Records tumble annually, and the opening of a #200,000 extension in September bodes well for future totals.

All is not rosy, however, on the path of true romance. Church of Scotland ministers in the presbytery of Annandale and Eskdale are incensed at the growing mercenariness associated with Gretna weddings.

Several companies, four of whom operate from the same set of telephone numbers, offer ''complete packages'' including horse and carriage, piper, kilt hire, cakes, flowers and, of course, a minister thrown in.

A special working group has been set up by the national church administrators to address the issue of how ministers from other parts of Scotland are putting Mammon before their pastoral duties and hiring themselves out to entrepreneurs.

There are claims that some ministers are earning #200 a day for conducting four weddings over the anvil at Gretna Green or in stately homes or castles in the vicinity. Anvil weddings used to be conducted by blacksmiths, joiners, and the like for ''a few bob'' a time. From 1940 they have only been legal if they have been conducted by a minister of religion.

Three years ago eight couples plighted their troth a few yards this side of the Border to the sound of a clergyman hitting a lump of metal with a hammer. Last year around 800 couples were married over the anvil.

The Rev John Miller, who

is the convener of the com-

mittee on social responsibility and public questions for the presbytery of Annandale and Eskdale which includes Gretna, is scathing of colleagues who fatten their wallets by hiring out their services.

''We are not allowed to accept a fee for pastoral services, but

I know that some ministers do, although no minister in this presby-

tery is involved in the conveyor belt style of marriages at Gretna,'' he said.

''I deplore ministers who do this sort of thing in order to shore up their bank balances, quite frankly.

''In my view, ministers who conduct weddings purely from a money point of view, ought to rethink their commitment.

''We are representatives of Christ, and these weddings are becoming almost like an assembly line.''

Mr Miller, who worked as a chaplain at Butlin's for a year, refused to conduct a wedding at the camp between two

people dressed up as cowboys.

''I am not into gimmicks,'' he observed. ''When a minister conducts a wedding he should be involved in the planning and give pastoral guidance before and after to people who are making a lifelong commitment.

''Sadly, these ministers often just appear on the day and ride off into the sunset after doing their quota of weddings. I and many other ministers won't be part of some drama. You get enough of that on television nowadays.'' The Rev Bryan Haston, who is the parish minister at Gretna, refuses to marry couples over the anvil unless they are residents of the parish.

''I think it is very sad that couples come here thinking they are getting the local minister. I don't lose any sleep about it, but I certainly think these weddings should be regularised and taken out of the hands of entre-preneurs,'' he said.

One wedding photographer, who refused to be named, contended that the Church of Scotland was driving couples into taking on arranged packages involving ministers because of their staidness.

''They are Victorian in their attitude,'' he said. ''They ask whether they have been divorced, separated, and another 50 questions.

''The Church is getting it out of context. These people want to be married legally over

the anvil, and they are from Aberdeen, London, Thailand, and British Columbia.''

HE ADDS: ''They want the romance of Gretna Green. As far as fees go, this money is meant to go towards church funds. Some vicars are so straightlaced. They are living in the Victorian era.''

Mike Notman, a former freelance press photographer who has won 17 Kodak awards for his wedding portfolios, disagrees that everything about the Gretna wedding industry is tacky and mercenary.

''The religious ceremonies over the anvil are lovely and couples are full of happiness when they go to Gretna. They are wonderful occasions.

''The happiness they bring far outweighs any kind of local prejudice there may be.''

Antipathy towards anvil weddings among ministers is nothing new, of course. The Rev John Morgan, parish minister in the 1790s, condemned the blacksmiths as ''impostors and priests of their own erection who have no right whatever either to marry or to exercise any part of the clerical function''.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the imminent opening of an extension at the Gretna registration centre, the civil wedding industry there may be under threat if the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities gets it way. Cosla wants the English status quo adopted whereby civil marriages can be conducted anywhere, even at a stately home or at a football ground.