Earthquake shook area up (From Stroud News and Journal)

Earthquake shook area up

A HUSBAND who had always been teased by his wife that he would sleep through an earthquake proved her wrong this week.

Kenneth Rooke, 73, of Pitchcombe said: "My wife always said I'd sleep through an earthquake but this one certainly woke me up."

"The whole house seemed to be shaking.

"The wardrobe doors were rattling and one of them flew open.

Wayne Baker from Lawnside, Forest Green said: "It was pretty scary."

Rene Hunt, 32, from Minchinhampton was awake when the tremor began.

"The floorboards started creaking and I thought it was my daughter getting up but then the house started shaking and there was a rumbling sound," she said.

Brigitte Jones, landlady of the Woodcutters Arms in Whiteshill, was watching TV when the earthquake struck.

"The whole building shook," she said. "My immediate thought was that it was an earthquake because my brother's been out in San Francisco and been through it."

Lesley Simpson of Paganhill said: "I felt the house shake and the clock was shaking on the top of the dresser."

"It was only for a few seconds and it was quite eerie.

Hugh Morrison, a Painswick-based meteorologist with an interest in seismology, said while on a global scale this was not a powerful tremor it was certainly quite a large one for England.

But he said people could probably now rest easy.

"After some very large earthquakes you do get after shocks," he said.

"But I don't think this one was powerful enough for that."