My house overlooks the Parish Church and Graveyard of St Peter, Birstall, though you can't see much of either at the moment because the trees are in full leaf. I was baptised in the church on the 3rd October 1937 by the then vicar, Canon Harry Taverner Robinson. According to a genealogist called Roy Stockhill, who runs a website called "Findmypast", Nick Clegg's great-great-great-great-grandfather, Christopher Clegg, was baptised there on the 12th February, 1775, probably using the same font, which goes back, I believe to the 17th Century, though probably not by Canon Robinson. Like one of my grandfathers, Christoper Clegg was a collier. He died in 1894, aged 74, and is buried in St Peter's Graveyard along with over 100 other Cleggs and my four grandparents.
So Daily Mail readers need not be alarmed. Nick Clegg may have some exotic blood, but he is really of solid West Riding stock.
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