THE first earthquake in Winsford in at least 12 years has been recorded, but it appears nobody in the town had noticed.

According to the British Geological Survey, the earth shook under Winsford at 6.38am on Friday, July 24.

The BGS Earthquake Seismology Team is the UK's national earthquake monitoring agency and lists all registered earthquakes in the UK online.

The team recorded the small quake, which was pinpointed to co-ordinates around the area of the Woodford Park Industrial Estate, at a magnitude of 0.8, which is said to be very minor and at a depth of seven kilometres.

Northwich Guardian:

According to the Richter Scale – a scale from zero to 10 used to tell the power of earthquakes – people tend to report feeling the ground tremble at 2.

Although the BGS has been operating for 185 years, earthquakes have only been recorded online since 2008 and the online record of the past 12 years shows that this is the first earthquake of any magnitude in Winsford in that time.

It was also the first earthquake in Cheshire for six months, with the previous one being recorded in Chester in January at a magnitude of 1.