EARTHQUAKES were still the topic of conversation today as much of the country came to terms with its biggest tremor in 12 years. The epicentre of the quake may have been in Dudley, West Midlands, but one Ipswich man said he too felt a tremor shortly before 1am on Monday morning.

EARTHQUAKES were still the topic of conversation today as much of the country came to terms with its biggest tremor in 12 years.

The epicentre of the quake may have been in Dudley, West Midlands, but one Ipswich man said he too felt a tremor shortly before 1am on Monday morning.

Much of central England and Wales were hit by the quake at 12.54am which left a trail of minor damage in areas including the West Midlands, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cambridgeshire.

Some 162 miles away from Dudley, Jeremy Dyde, who lives in a first floor flat in Norwich Road, said he was astonished nobody else in town felt the tremor.

Mr Dyde, 56, said: "I was on the internet at the time and I heard this noise, which sounded like someone using an electric drill to drill a hole in the wall. "My first thought was why someone was trying to put a picture up at that time but then I felt the building vibrate.

"There were three strong vibrations, one after the other, and only then did it register to me that it felt like when I was back in Canada.

"I knew then that it was an earthquake as I lived in Montreal and Toronto for years and experienced ten or 12 while I was living there. But it was the noise that was interesting as I never heard one like it in Canada."

Despite feeling the earth move, Mr Dyde said he was puzzled that nobody else in Ipswich seemed to have witnessed the same sensation.

"I spoke to some other people in Ipswich on Monday and I was surprised nobody else heard it – I guess people in Ipswich go to bed early!"

Monday's earthquake measured 4.8 on the Richter scale, the biggest tremor since 1990 when a 5.1 magnitude tremor rocked Bishop's Castle in Shropshire.