Gretna Green the marriage ceremony. The blacksmiths in Gretna became known as "anvil priests", culminating with Richard Rennison, who performed 5,147 ceremonies. The local blacksmith and his anvil became lasting symbols of Gretna Green weddings. Two in particular, The Old Blacksmith's Shop, built around 1712, and Gretna Hall Blacksmith's Shop (1710) became, in popular folklore at least, the focal tourist points for the marriage trade. The Old Blacksmith's Shop opened to the public as a visitor attraction as early as 1887. Victorian chronicler Robert Smith Surtees described Gretna Green at length in his 1848 "New Monthly Magazine" serial, "The Richest Commoner in
Gretna, Manitoba Manitoba) which has been, and continues to be, a supporting member of Gretna. In 2013, the Provincial NDP Government legislated Manitoba communities under the population of 1000 must amalgamate with their nearest neighbouring municipality with a deadline of 2015. Gretna lost its local government as a result and governmental control was passed to the RM of Rhineland, now the Municipality of Rhineland. Gretna's history repeatedly reveals how this rural community has survived many changes and disasters. It continues to draw young families looking for that comfortable mix between rural and urban; the comfort of small town living with the necessary