Gretna, Manitoba Gretna after Gretna Green in Scotland, also a border community, where runaway couples were married by the blacksmith at his anvil. Gretna soon became a prominent border community. As businesses thrived and expanded, Gretna life in the early 20th century was filled with promise and opportunity. As progress would have it, changes afforded Gretna no favours and the community began losing the grain milling industry responsible for its boom. After the World War II, Gretna became the centre for oil transfer to the United States of America. Enbridge Pipelines Inc. (the main storage and transfer company of oil in southern
Marriage in Scotland was used by couples from Ireland, because of the daily packet boat service to Donaghadee. Gretna's famous runaway marriages began in 1753 with the passing of "Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act" in England. The Act required consent to the marriage from the parents if a party to a marriage was not at least 21 years old. However, in Scotland it was possible for boys to get married at 14 years and girls at 12 years without parental consent. Some "Gretna" marriages were of (sometimes abducted) heiresses; e.g., the second marriage in 1826 of Edward Gibbon Wakefield to the young heiress Ellen