I felt a sliding feeling rather than a vibrating, as if somebody was sliding the floor backwards and forward ever so gently.
I noticed a few things rocking and thought maybe a big lorry was going down my street, but could not hear anything. I assumed I must of knocked my desk with my leg and was imagining things. I even shock my desk to see if I got the same feeling.
I have to say it was enough to get the adrenalin going and had it gone on a little longer I was ready to grab my mother and perhaps go outside (with the thought of a relatively big earthquake here mentioned a hundred years ago here or so) I then said to myself 'I am being silly' but thought it would be funny if on the news tomorrow there was mention of a quake.
Well there was! My sister in London Docklands felt it enough to get dressed!
Can't say I have ever felt something like that before. I can only describe it as the room being pushed backwards and forwards very gently but enough to make you concerned about what is going on.
Chris Duran, Wivenhoe, Essex
What we felt mostly affected our poor cockatiel, Spike, in his cage which rattled quite loudly. He then sat on his perch for some time staring fixedly at the floor - he seemed to know the source, which is more than we did at that time!
They tell us birds and animals are more sensitive to these things than us humans - well, our Spike seemed to know where it had come from by looking downwards so intently!
Derek and Yvonne King, Huntingdon
"How powerful the elements are and how small and insignificant we are when nature unleashes forces beyond our control"
Sue Adnitt
I live in Harlington, Bedfordshire and was sitting at the computer at the time and thought a heavy goods train was passing through the local station just 300 yards away. But there wasn't any noise just this feeling of being gently rocked from side to side - it rather felt like I was sitting on a jelly on springs - no connection with anything solid around.
Michael Powles
I had not long been in bed trying to sleep when I heard my table banging and felt a lot of shaking, I have never been so petrified in my life! It felt as if I was directly above the epicentre. I didn't realize the actual severity until looking at BBCi from BBC NEWS 24 this morning. It pooves that mother nature can strike anywhere!
Joe Wilson in Norwich.
I live in St Ives and woke in the night with my bed shaking and the sash windows rattling ... I thought that there was a poltergeist in the room! I have never known anything like it!!!
David Ditchfield
We were woken up by the wardrobe door rattling. Also of interest was a large tree opposite our house which at night is full of roasting starlings. The birds all woke up, presumably feeling the vibration through the tree and chatted loudly for about 15 minutes.
Trevor Burlingham, Thetford, Norfolk.
At approximately 1am I felt a large earth tremor. It began with a loud rumbling noise and vibration. It built up very fast and the house and everything in it began to shake and rattle. I would say the pulses, or vibrations were around three a second.
I guessed it was a quake as I could hear the rumbling stretching far into the distance. It lasted around 15 seconds from start to finish. It was quite unnerving, as you were never quite sure when it had reached its peak. It began to fade very slowly with the sound fading into the distance. It's the largest earth quake I have ever experienced in Britain. As for pets, my dog never batted an eyelid, but then, unless it involved a can
of food, biscuits, or the key word 'lead and collar,' she wouldn't bother!
Jon, King's Lynn, Norfolk
I live in Willingham, 10 miles north of Cambridge. I was reading in bed last night when the bed began to shake. I thought the bed was too heavy and was going to go through the floor, or the most enormous lorry was thundering past the house - I live on a very quiet estate!
Mrs Maureen Lee
I was woken as a large picture/clip frame by my bed was rattling, plus vibrating sounds coming from the other side of my bedroom. The noise didn't last very long (only a few seconds) but at the time, I thought perhaps I'd just woken from a strange dream, so just went back to sleep again! When I put the television on this morning and heard there had been an earthquake tremor, I thus realised it wasn't a dream! BBC Look East News were asking people to contact you if you experienced the tremor!
David Boulton
Lying awake in my bed on the ground floor of my barn conversion, I was listening to the sounds of the waterfall tinkling over the boulders in my garden, the only sound to permeate the silence of the starry indigo night in rural Lilford, Northamptonshire.
Out of nowhere a deafening, rumbling roar surged through the air from behind the wall where I lay. The wall behind the bed shook and it felt like a piece of elastic being pulled from side to side from side.
The floor moved , the bed shook and at one point I felt the wall might collapse and that the large beams might split. What on earth was this? Gradually realisation dawned as I heard the startled pheasants, their tinny croaking calls pervading the night air. This must be an earthquake. And then silence.
The birds quietened and I listened, fearful, in case more was to follow.
I peered from the window. No security lights from the barn next door, the tall topiary holly trees stood erect in their pots and on the surface it was as if nothing had occurred. I put on the light. 1am!
I got out of bed again and looked at the beams with a torch, expecting to see large cracks, but all seemed undisturbed.
My mind was racing- how powerful the elements are and how small and insignificant we are when nature unleashes forces beyond our control.
It was 3am before I drifted back off to sleep.
At 6am I awoke to hear the news and then everything made sense.
Sue Adnitt
