Regency Events: Shrewsbury Earthquake

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from all blame 17 EARTHQUAKE AT SHREWS BURY A slight earthquake was felt in this town and vicinity at one o clock after mid day In the town the workmen employed in several slightly constructed work shops felt the tremulous motion in the walls and an undulation of the floors at the same time a rumbling noise was heard similar to that of a train of waggons pass ing rapidly along a paved street This noise was heard by many in dividuals and families in the town but the shocks were more strongly felt in the neighbourhood of Shrews bury extending about nine miles from the town chiefly in a south or south east direction At Wel batch coal works three miles from Shrewsbury the phenomena were most apparent the walls of Mr Hughes's house shook and wavered a ruler rolled from the desk in the office the men in the coal pits were alarmed and ascended as quickly as possible believing that an explosion of fire damp had occurred in some of the shafts At Cruckton hall several of the bells tingled at the village of Hanwood bricks fell from a chim ney At Pontesbury the men as cended from the coal pits in terror At Porthill near this town the glasses shook in the chamber of an invalid and the chair tottered underneath him At Pontesford Thomas Evans a blind man was almost shaken from his chair This
tremor of the earth does not ap pear to have been felt in the coal pits at Willington Wolverhamp ton & c

The Annual Register: World Events …. 1838 (1839). (1839). (n.p.): ProQuestrel.

The British Geological Survey seemed to miss this minor quake in their compiled list of earthquakes from the 18th and early 19th centuries that are featured in a post here: British Earthquakes from 1700 to 1849.  I would suspect that was because the magnitude in the micro and minor range.

For more information on Georgian Earthquakes, there is also this lovely post: Reports of seismic activity in 18th century England – All Things Georgian

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