From the Darlington & Stockton Times of June 25, 1921

A MARRIAGE made in shipping heaven was celebrated in Bedale 100 years ago when Margarita Gray, the fourth daughter of Sir William Cresswell Gray of Thorp Perrow, married Major William Ropner, of West Hartlepool.

“The festivity of the occasion was advertised by the stream of motor cars and the display of bunting, flags and a line of streamers over the street, while there were streamers over the gateway of Thorp Perrow Park and about the hall,” said the D&S Times.

The Grays were shipbuilders in West Hartlepool – they’d built 13 vessels for the Admiralty and countless more for the merchant fleet during the First World War – and Ropners’ shipbuilding yard in Stockton was the third largest in the country, employing 1,500 people.

“The bride was attired in white chiffon, embroidered with silver-lined bugles in lines down the skirt, finishing at hem, with deep crystal fringe over an underskirt of crystal lace,” said the D&S, without explained why a bugle should be sewn into a wedding dress. “The bodice was embroidered in lines, finishing in front with plaque, which had crystals hanging from it like drops of rain.”

Why a tooth deposit should get a mention there is also unexplained.

The reception was at Thorp Perrow, including, from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, a tea for the tenants, farmers and tradespeople of Bedale in the marquee.

“There was a magnificent display of wedding presents, including silver salts, muffineers, and a mustard pot in a case, from the Bedale Trades’ Association,” said the D&S.

A muffineer, of course, is a small silver sugar sprinkler specifically designed for sprinkling sugar onto muffins, and the newly-weds were clearly keen muffin-eaters as they were given several of them.

One of the most interesting details in the report is that the best man was Maj Ropner’s brother, Maj Leonard Ropner. When Sir William Cresswell Gray died in 1924, the Ropner brothers’ father, Sir Robert, bought Thorpe Perrow and it was Leonard Ropner who laid out the arboretum which is such an attraction today.