Great Glen, Leicestershire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Great Glen (or Glenn), also known as Glen Magna, is a village in Leicestershire, England about seven miles south-east of Leicester.
Its name comes from the original Iron Age settlers who used the Celtic word glennos, meaning valley and comes from the fact that Great Glen lies in part of the valley of the River Sence. The 'great' part is to distinguish the village from Glen Parva.
In 1751 a turnpike bridge was built over the River Sence as a part of the stagecoach route from Leicester to London. The pubs The Old Greyhound and The Crown were originally coaching inns built soon after the new road opened. This road later became the A6 road, and a bypass around the village was opened in 2003.
In the 16th century, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, father of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey, became the lord of the manor. After his execution for treason, his lands were seized by the crown.
Following the Battle of Naseby in 1645, during the English Civil War, Great Glen played host to a band of Cromwellian soldiers who were pursuing some of the (defeated) Royalist Cavalry. They were later joined by the rest of the army who camped overnight before moving onto Leicester. Some of these soldiers made camp in the church where they caused much damage (such as breaking all the windows), of which some evidence can still be seen today. There are five road names in the village that mark these events: Cromwell Road, Naseby Way, Ruperts Way, Edgehill Close and Halford Close.
Stretton Hall was built in the 18th century. Leicestershire and Rutland Joint Board for the Mentally Defective bought the hall in 1932 for conversion to a hospital. Under the NHS it was a residential hospital for learning disabled children and had 157 beds in 1979 [1]. The hospital closed in the 1990s and Leicester Grammar School have put in a planning application in to develop the site, which is situated in the green belt between Great Glen and the town of Oadby (which joins onto the city of Leicester).This is currently being looked at in a public inquiry and has not yet been rubber stamped by the Secretary of State [2].
There are two other schools in the village, the C of E St Cuthbert's primary school, which feeds to the local state schools in the neighbouring village of Kibworth and the town of Market Harborough. The independent school, The Stoneygate School, also has its site at Great Glen. Its pupils recently won Best Junior Choir at BBC Songs of Praise 2005 School Choirs Contest[3].
The K6 Red telephone box on the village green is a listed building.
Trevor Benjamin used to live here and Engelbert Humperdinck (singer) has a home in the village.
The village is located at grid reference SP655975.
[edit] History
See [4]
Stretton Hall was redeveloped in the mid-1990s and the adjacent Mount farm may have possibly been sold to Leicester Grammar School who are waiting for permission to develop the land.
In late summer 2006. The Secretary of State granted conditional permission to Leicester Grammar School to develop its new school on the Mount Farm site. Conditions include surveying for, and encompassing the retention of a local bat population.
Great Glen Methodist Church in the centre of the village is a typical Weslyan period Chapel which is a Grade 2* listed building which was built in 1827.
