Reactions to the sign changes have been as impassioned as they have been varied.

Pastor Paul Chamberlain, Minister of Calvary Church in Kingswinford, Dudley, condemned the changes as "political correctness gone mad."

He said: "This is the idiocy of political correctness. It's another attempt to avoid offending the minority at the expense of offending the majority, and another example of eroding the Christian ethos upon which our country is based."

Author of a series of studies of marriage, Patricia Morgan, said: "The goal is to get rid of marriage. By removing the word, you remove it from peoples' thinking and from their behaviour."

Jill Kirby of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank said: "The Government is not just trying to extend the benefits of marriage to same sex couples, it is trying to downgrade the status of marriage and remove it from the language."

Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe said: "This is an extreme form of political correctness gone mad. Thankfully marriage is still a recognised activity and should be advertised as such."

Church of England spokesman for the Diocese of Lichfield Gavin Drake was among the few who welcomed the changes.

He said: "It is appropriate to drop the word marriage because civil partnerships are not marriage."

Newspaper reader S Thomas, from Coventry, commented: "Civil partnerships are a reality and that signage has to be accurate. Most gay people would not be offended by the word marriage or register office signs.

"However, the religious lobby cannot complain about the removal of the inaccurate word 'marriage' as it was they who campaigned so vociferously to prevent civil part-nership being termed 'gay marriage' in the first place."