Difference between revisions of "Gretna"
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Revision as of 15:01, May 2, 2007
Gretna is a small town in Dumfriesshire in south-west Scotland, close to the English border. It was designed by the urban planner Raymond Unwin and constructed by the Ministry of Munitions in 1915-16 to provide accommodation for workers at the First World War munitions factories which stretched between Carlisle and Annan.
On the edge of Gretna, the older hamlet of Gretna Green was a favoured spot (along with Coldstream and Lamberton Toll for runaway English couples to obtain instant marriages, being the first settlement arrived at north of the border. It is still a popular marriage location.
Quintinhill, near Gretna, was the secne of Britain's worst-ever railway accident in 1915, when three trains, including a heavily-laden troop train, collided. 227 people were killed.