An earthquake has propelled a North village into the national spotlight. Ian Noble visits Kirkby Malzeard to find out what damage was caused.

RESIDENTS in the small village of Kirkby Malzeard are unused to the spotlight.

But on Monday night they were shaken into public attention by an earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale.

The village, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, was the epicentre of the quake, which struck at about 9pm.

It was the most powerful in the area since one measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale in 1780, and was felt in homes across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Butcher Timothy Stothard, 41, who owns Highside Butchers, in Main Street, suffered slight damage to his home.

He said: “I was sitting on the settee and I felt a shudder all of a sudden.

“It lasted five or six seconds and things started rattling. I turned to my partner and I said ‘that felt like an earthquake’.

“Things were shaking in the house, but nothing was damaged. I went outside and discovered it had shaken coals from the coal bunker and a piece of heavy panelling on the garage had been shaken down.”

Neil Fraser, of Church Bank, said: “I wondered what it was.

“We live near a bank and I thought it might be someone with a heavy lorry trying to get up there.

“It only lasted about six seconds. It was a bit of a shock and slightly surprising when I found out what it had been.”

Councillor Geoffrey Berry, chairman of Kirkby Malzeard, Laverton and Dallowgill Parish Council, was at home in Main Street when the earthquake struck.

He said: “It sounded like a lorry crashing in the lane outside. The desk and all of the silver shook, but it was all over in seconds. I looked to see if the chimney pot had fallen off, but the house isn’t damaged.”

Monday’s tremor was the second earthquake that the North of England has experienced recently. One measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale was centred on Coniston, in the Lake District, on December 21.

Professor Robert Holdsworth, head of earth sciences at Durham University, said there was nothing particularly unusual about the occurrence of the two small earthquakes.

He said: “By global standards, the UK is not particularly prone to earthquakes, but it does experience between 20 to 30 events every year that are sufficiently large to be felt.

“Very few of these cause significant damage, though they often make a significant and long-lasting impression on people who experience them.”