The residents of a quintessential English village who believed themselves to be almost 100% English were rather surprised by the results after they had their DNA tested.
AncestryDNA visited the sleepy town of Bledington in the Cotswolds.
Bledlington appears to be a typically English village, and the Census data lists the community as 95% white British.
However, tests carried out on 120 Bledington residents found that not one of them had 100% British (Anglo Saxon) DNA.
Most of the villagers believed they would have no foreign blood. However, on average 17% of the DNA taken was Irish, Scottish or Welsh.
AncestryDNA is a DNA testing service from the UK. They chose to carry out the study on the people of Bledington because of the village’s size and community spirit.
They took saliva samples of 120 residents, ageing from 19 to 93. These were than analysed and matched against a database of 700,000 global DNA samples.
Sue Windsor, one of the participants in the study, found she had no British DNA but was in fact 23% Irish.
She told the Evening Standard: “I was a bit surprised because I have got 69 per cent Europe West, 23 per cent Ireland and 8 per cent other regions. I haven’t got any British in me, which I was a bit taken back by because my family has always lived in this country.”
Russell James of AncestryDNA said: “Despite the majority of residents assuming they were British through and through, this fascinating process uncovered some incredibly diverse heritage and allowed us to take a broader look at the genetic history of the village as a whole.
“It seems that Bledington’s picturesque and arguably ‘typical England’ look and feel is deceiving as, on average, less than half of the villagers’ DNA was identified as Great British.”
Upon hearing the results of her DNA test one Bledington resident joked: “Don’t tell Nigel Farage!”
Collectively, the people of Bledington have just 43% Anglo-Saxon DNA. The rest of their genetic makeup is completed by 21% Western Europe (Germany and France), and the Celtic nations (17%).
A further 15 regions are also present in the average Bledington DNA, from places as far as Scandanavia to Melenasia.
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