Forfar’s historic Canmore Room is to take on a modern role as the venue for the town’s civil marriages.
The impressive room on the upper floor of the town’s Municipal Buildings at The Cross has welcomed dignitaries from the UK and beyond since a major renovation around a decade ago.
Now councillors will open the doors of the spectacular north-facing room – with a Forfar Coat of Arms as its centrepiece – for registrar weddings, civil partnerships and citizenship ceremonies in a money-saving move which will lead to leased registration offices in Forfar and Arbroath being let go within the next few years.
The Forfar and Arbroath registrar offices currently cost the council more than £32,000 a year, with their leases expiring in February 2020 and October 2018 respectively.
Policy and resources councillors were told: “In accordance with the council’s accommodation strategy, work is ongoing to co-locate this service within other council premises.
“Issues may arise in respect of the availability of accommodation to conduct the ceremonies but it is not thought that these issues are insurmountable.
“It is against this background that consideration has been given to using the Canmore Room for conducting civil marriages, partnership registrations and private citizenship ceremonies.
“The use of the Canmore Room will reduce the accommodation requirements of a co-located Forfar registration office. In addition it is considered that the location and suitability of the Canmore Room may increase the number of persons wishing to us the registration service which could result in additional revenue.”
Montrose registration office may also be sold as part of the co-location strategy.
Marriages at the Forfar office averaged one a month last year, down from 18 in 2014 and 16 the year before.
Charges there range from £125 for an office hours event involving less than ten people, up to almost £450 for sweethearts who want to get hitched on a public holiday.
“If use of the Canmore Room proves to be popular then additional revenue would be generated,” added the committee report.
“By way of comparison, Dundee City Council charge an additional £105 for the use of the Tay Room at City Square in Dundee on a Saturday, over and above the normal fees for services in their marriage room.
“At this point, demand for the use of the Canmore Room is unknown. If the use becomes popular then the fees would be reviewed to assess whether additional revenue can be generated over and above what is proposed.”
The Forfar Coat of Arms
The striking feature of the Canmore Room is the heraldic crest of the Royal Burgh of Forfar, painstakingly restored a decade ago after being discovered on a wall of the upper floor of the Municipal Buildings.
A specialist paintings conservator was commissioned to bring the coat of arms back to former glory, recreating the magnificent crest from surviving images on a burgh seal, a beggar’s badge and an 1846 account of the markings on the shield.
The expert also used a tiny surviving plaster fragment of the Forfar Castle from the original crest as an important pointer in the restoration, with the artefact now part of the Forfar museum collection in the town’s Meffan.