[8] The River Rase flows through the town and crosses Waterloo Street at Crane Bridge.

[11][12] It was founded in 1863 as a small grammar school as part of a legal settlement following a court case involving funds from the medieval charity of Thomas de Aston, a 13th-century monk.

The earthquake, which according to the British Geological Survey measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale, struck at a depth of 11.6 miles (18.7 km)[15] and was felt across much of the UK from Edinburgh to Plymouth, and as far away as Bangor in Northern Ireland and Haarlem in the Netherlands.

[16] The 10-second quake was the largest recorded example in the United Kingdom since the 1984 Llŷn Peninsula earthquake struck North Wales, measuring 5.4.

[16][17] There were no recorded local injuries and only one recorded injury elsewhere in the UK, in South Yorkshire, when a chimney was dislodged from a house roof, falling down through the house's roof and landing on the male resident, who was in bed at the time, causing a broken pelvis.