Or perhaps more of a ‘tremor’ - relatively pathetic by international standards I should think.

At about 12:55am, I felt a mild East-West shaking motion here in North Warwickshire, lasting 5-10 seconds at a frequency of about 2Hz. A friend in the Harborne area of Birmingham felt a stronger up/down thrusting motion but did not tell me the frequency. Although there was no noise or apparent damage in Harborne, he reported loss of his cable internet connection and emergency services sirens immediately after the earthquake.

I suspect if the epicentre was nearby, this would be a milder quake than the 2002 earthquake which reached 5.0 on the Richter scale.

At this time, the BBC has the beginnings of a news report here. [potential sensationalism warning]