Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) downed tools for a two-hour stoppage when strikers were synchronised to leave as their computer clock changed to that time.

The strike had been called in protest of their below-inflation pay offer and allowances for selective managers and members, increasing concern over the rising cost of living and spiralling food and petrol bills.

After leaving the city building, the protesters marched to the Peterborough College of Adult Education, in Brook Street, for a meeting.

Secretary of the Peterborough Branch Doreen Roberts, who has worked at the Land Registry for more than 26 years, stressed that the strikers were under no illusion as to the big step they had made.

She said: “It’s important that we have a decent living wage. We are not asking for mega bucks, just something we can live off. You have to stand up for your rights and this is not something we thought about lightly.”

The number of union staff involved was almost a quarter of the workers at the registry, which deals with all titles for land in the area and its dealings such as sales and mortgages of registered land at its Touthill Close office.

Mrs Roberts (64) appreciated that the general public often think they are better paid then they are and was keen to dispel the traditional image of a civil servant.

She said: “I think people have this picture of a bowler hatted man with his feet up on the desk taking it easy. It’s not like that, we are ordinary people who come to work to do the best we can.

“We are all struggling, some are single parents, some work part-time, but the fact is everyone, civil servants or not, are feeling the pinch.”

PCS Land Registry group president Jonathan Harwood said: “Members in the Land Registry are prepared to maintain the work to rule and withdrawal of goodwill, started back on April 2, for as long as it takes to bring the employer back to the negotiating table.”

The work to rule means that employees for the duration of the action will stick rigorously to their grade. Which means they will only do the work that is in their job description.

The Peterborough strikers joined more that 6,000 members at the 26 Land Registry sites around the country taking part in the dispute.