HISTORY was made when the Government's Civil Partnership Act came into force last December, enabling gay couples to have their relationship recognised in law for the first time.

New figures have revealed that North Yorkshire has had a steady stream of couples coming forward to take advantage of the new law - with 36 couples tying the knot in the county by January 31. In York, the figure was 19, while in East Yorkshire it was 13.

The most popular place in the country for civil partnerships was Brighton and Hove, where 126 couples tied the knot by the end of January. The least popular by that date was Rochdale in Greater Manchester, which only had ten.

Famous gay duo Sir Elton John and David Furnish blazed a trail by being one of the first couples to become civil partners on December 21 - and pioneering same-sex partners across North Yorkshire and York followed suit on the same day.

A spokeswoman for York Register Office said more than 30 couples had now become civil partners in the city.

"We've got a steady flow or people coming forward to register their civil partnership," she said.

Wanda Stables, superintendent registrar for North Yorkshire, said the county had now seen 47 same-sex couples tying the knot.

"It's been a total delight from start to finish," she said.

"We expected it to be an initial flurry when the law first came in on December 5, then we expected it to tail off almost to nothing.

"But in fact we've kept on having a number of ceremonies all the time. Nearly all the civil ceremony partnerships have been waiting so long for this to happen."

Mrs Stables said when the law came in more men in the county had initially come forward to become civil partners than women, but in January things evened out with eight male partners and seven female partners joined in law.

Michael Sargood, from South Bank, York, is to tie the knot with Marti Dix, his partner of three years, in April.

He said: "I think it is fantastic that same sex couples can finally share their commitment to each other in front of family and friends and also get legal recognition for it.

"It's a really important step forward for human rights.

"I'm really looking forward to my big day and no longer having to tick the "single" box on official forms, just because of my partner's gender."

Updated: 10:07 Wednesday, March 01, 2006