Richard Rennison arrived in Gretna Green in 1926 at the time Hugh Mackie was looking for a successor for the position of resident "Priest" at the blacksmiths Shop.

He started "marrying the folk" as he called it, almost immediately. A showman with the gift of the gab, he had the right knack for the job.

Richard Rennison came from near Hexham Northumberland, where he had been employed as a saddler.

He was dark haired, ruddy of complexion, of average height and rather stout.

Rennison was once asked what hours he kept?

To which he replied "Doctor's hours"

Like other Gretna Green Anvil Priests before him, Rennison carried on the tradition of Gretna Green Anvil weddings and was ready to answer a marriage call at any hour of the day or night.

He enjoyed and was proud of "his marrying trade". A great storyteller, one of his favourite tales was how, after attending a funeral on New Year's Day in 1931, he arrived back at the cottage adjacent to the forge to find eight couples on his doorstep waiting to be married!

Like his predecessors he lived in the cottage and by the time the law was changed in 1940 he had conducted 5,147 marriages. He continued to work in the blacksmiths Shop until 1962 when he retired.

Practising his marriage trade at a time when the Church and Establishment was trying to shut it down, Rennison liked to point out that his name, when written in reverse, spelt "No Sinner"!