This Is My Street And I'm Never Gonna Leave It

This is my street
And I'm never gonna leave it
And I'm always gonna stay
Until I live to be 99
Cause all the people I meet
Seem to come from my street
And I can't get away
Because it's calling me
Come on home

- Autumn Almanac, The Kinks (1968)

And how right The Kinks were in their analysis of the habits of their fellow citizens.  Today's Telegraph (UK) reports that genetic studies show that modern Britons live in the same general areas they did in 600 AD!

Roman rule collapsed in Britain in the early fifth century and within a couple of decades the country fragmented politically.  At some point from the mid-fifth century onwards Angles, Saxons and Jutes from what are now Holland, Germany and Denmark began migrating across the North Sea and establishing their own small kingdoms in eastern Britain.  The divisions established at that time can still be traced genetically as shown in these maps from The Telegraph which tell a tale of remarkable stability the most striking of which is the boundary between Cornwall and Devon in England's southwest corner.