Longhope has been shaken by a strong earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter Scale, although it is officially classed as a light earthquake in world terms. The tremor occurred in the small hours of this morning at 12:53am, with the epicentre at Dudley, in the West Midlands, and stirred many people from their beds who wondered what it was. The emergency services reported thousands of calls from the worried public, but there are no reports of injuries or structural damage within the village.
While some people, mainly children and teenagers, slept through all the commotion, others reported it as being like a bomb at GCHQ in Cheltenham, or a lorry crashing into their homes. Most people were relieved to hear on the news the following morning that it was in fact an earthquake that had struck the village.