Unless you're a sensitive soul, you won't have noticed that Telford was hit by an earthquake last week.

The tremor hit 3am Monday 24 January - but no-one would have noticed.

But that's not because most people would have been asleep when the earthquake hit, but because it was so weak.

It measured just 1.4 on the Richter Scale and was spotted by the scientists of the British Geological Survey.

An earthquake hit Telford and nobody felt a thing as they slept through in their beds.

They say the tremor lasted just under 20 seconds, when the earth moved some five kilometres below Telford.

The last earthquake to hit the Midlands was centred on Dudley and caused minor damage to buildings across the region in September 2002.

Obviously, that one was felt in Shropshire, not least because it measured 4.8 on the Richter Scale.

And the earthquake that triggered off the recent Asian Tsunami was a terrifying 9 on the same scale.

While the Dudley event grabbed the headlines, Telford's earthquake has passed with barely a mention in the media.

You'll be glad to hear that the British Geological Survey is using more sophisticated equipment than us

That's because it was one of about 200 tiny tremors to hit Britain every year. And the Telford tremor was the smallest of four to hit Britain last week.

But that's not to say that Shropshire hasn't been at the centre of several earthquakes in the last century or so.

Just 15 years ago, an earthquake that caused widespread damage across north Wales, the North West and the Midlands, was later traced to a spot underneath Bishops Castle.

That one measured a respectable 5.1 on the Richter Scale.