Little did village heritage warden Wayne Coleman realise what a simple DNA test would reveal about his family.

He had just wanted to help build up a picture of the history of his home village of Kibworth Beauchamp.

For hundreds of years the Coleman family has been part of the rural life of the community.

Mr Coleman, who has done much to protect the fabric of the village, readily took the swab of the inside of his mouth and sent off the sample.

But the test result was a surprise. It shows his DNA is full-blooded, axe-wielding Norse Viking.

The 43-year-old had no idea he had ancestors from the west coast of Norway who invaded England 1,000 years ago.

Mr Coleman said: "It is great news and a real surprise to think I had such a fierce ancestry. I do have blue eyes and my hair was blond when I was a child. So they were clues.

"But to have it confirmed beyond doubt that I am a Viking is great. I think I should now be called the village pillager instead of the heritage warden."

Mr Coleman is one of a number of villagers who had DNA samples taken by the genetics department at the University of Leicester. The full results are to be revealed in a BBC history series, English Story.

The programme, featuring historian Michael Wood, chronicles 2,000 years of history in Kibworth Beauchamp, Kibworth Harcourt and Smeeton Westerby.

Mr Wood said the area was chosen as it marked the historic divide between Danish and Saxon rule, 1,000 years ago.

Mr Coleman volunteered to have his DNA examined by Dr Turi King, who has been tracing Viking ancestry by cataloguing the Y chromosome which is handed down from father to son.

Mr Coleman said: "The report said I was R1a. which is quite rare in Britain except in regions with strong Norse ancestry.

"It is common in Norway today, with about 26 per cent of the population having it."

Areas in England with significant numbers of people with Norse backgrounds are Liverpool and Yorkshire.

His surname could also be a clue as Coleman can be an Irish name meaning white dove.

It was a name adopted by Norwegian Vikings who came to Britain from the Norse Kingdom of Dublin 1,000 years ago. The Vikings had invaded territory around Dublin in the ninth century.

Another historic village family being tested is the Iliffes.

Terry Iliffe said: "Our family, like the Colemans, goes back generations in Kibworth. A number of us had our DNA samples taken in May and we are waiting for them to be analysed.

"Michael Wood believes we could be of Viking origin, too, and have a common ancestor."

Dr King said: "A piece of our DNA, the Y chromosome, is the one part of our genetic material that confers maleness and is passed, like surnames, from father to son.

"In this area, the Norwegian Viking marker is rare and is distinctive from that of the Danish Viking, which is what I would expect to find."

On Sunday, at 6pm, a time capsule is to be buried in the car park of the Coach and Horses pub in the village.

It will be filmed for the series, which will tell the villages' stories from when the Romans left in 410AD to the present day.

The series will be shown on BBC 4, starting in the week commencing September 20.

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