People living in Staffordshire reported “rumbling” and rattling windows and doors as the area was hit by a 3.3 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed the tremor, which had an epicentre 7.3km (4.5 miles) below the village of Tean.
It is the largest of 21 earthquakes to hit the UK in the last two months, comfortably beating two 1.8 magnitude tremors felt on the Isle of Mull in May.
It falls some way short of the record earthquake in the UK, which the BGS records as a 6.1 magnitude tremor in the North Sea, about 75 miles north east of Great Yarmouth, on June 7 1931.
Filey felt the strongest effects of that earthquake, with a church spire rotated, which was felt as far away as Surrey, Norway, Denmark and Germany.
The BGS said it had received reports from around the area on Wednesday night, mainly from within 20km (12.5 miles) of the epicentre, describing “an initial rumbling, then a bang” with what “felt more like a shunt, like something had hit something”.
Mark Begg, 30, told the PA news agency he was at home in Uttoxeter when he felt “a very large shake”.
He said he checked “around the house to see if I could see anything” and “after noticing there were no signs of damage I concluded it was most likely a mini earthquake”.
Tom, 38, in Cheadle, Staffordshire, said: “I was sitting watching an episode of Only Connect with my wife on YouTube and as we opened another bottle of wine the whole house shook.
“I thought either one of the children had fallen out of bed or something else had happened.”
The BGS says it detects and locates between 200 and 300 earthquakes in the UK each year.
Between 20 to 30 earthquakes annually are felt by people with the others only recorded by sensitive instruments.
