The village green opposite the Italian Greyhound is where most things in Great Glen seem to start — walks, local events, and any conversation about where to eat. The pub itself occupies a Grade II listed coaching inn that has been standing here, in one form or another, for over 400 years. It began life as The Old Greyhound, named for the three greyhound heads on the coat of arms of the Nele family, who were Lords of the Manor from 1553. It has since been The Pug & Greyhound and is now, under Italian-themed management, The Italian Greyhound. The menu runs to hand-stretched pizzas, tagliatelle salmone, homemade lasagne, polpette, sea bass, and bouillabaisse. The outbuildings where horses were stabled and the blacksmith worked were converted into guest bedrooms in the 1990s.
There is a large sunny garden terrace with a marquee, which is useful given the English climate's relationship with outdoor dining.
The Crown, in the village centre, is one of the original coaching inns built after the Leicester-to-London turnpike road opened in 1751. The Bell, the other village local, hosts classic car meets every third Tuesday of the month, drawing enthusiasts from across the county. A fourth pub, the Fox and Goose on Church Lane, is now someone's house.
Great Glen sits six miles south-east of Leicester in a broad, open valley carved by the River Sence. The A6 bypass arrived in 2003 and took the lorries with it, which is the kind of improvement you only appreciate if you remember what it was like before. Rolling farmland opens out to the south-east towards Burton Overy and the Wistow estate.
For walking, the eight-mile circular to Burton Overy starts from the village green and loops through Little Stretton, King's Norton, and back. You pass the site of the deserted medieval village of Stretton Magna, which is now just fields. The route follows the River Sence corridor on footpaths and bridleways with some road sections. The Grand Union Canal towpath is accessible south of the village if you want something flatter.
St Cuthbert's church stands at the village's south-western corner. The original Saxon building was replaced by the Normans in the early twelfth century, rebuilt again in the fourteenth, then substantially reconstructed by the Victorians in 1876. Only the tower survived that last round. After the Battle of Naseby in June 1645, Cromwellian soldiers pursuing Royalist cavalry camped overnight in the church and broke all the windows. Some evidence of the damage is still visible, which gives the place a certain weight.
The name Great Glen is older than everything in it. 'Glennos' is Celtic for valley — a pre-Roman British word that outlasted the Romans, the Saxons, and the Danes. The Domesday Book records it simply as Glen, along with a corn mill that survives as the oldest building in the village. Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, held the manor in the mid-sixteenth century. He was Lady Jane Grey's father. After her nine-day reign ended and his own involvement in Wyatt's Rebellion came to light, he was executed for treason in February 1554, and the Crown took his lands, Great Glen included.
Bus services run to Leicester and Market Harborough along the A6 corridor. Leicester station is six miles away, Market Harborough nine.
Every third Tuesday evening, the car park at The Bell fills with polished bonnets and people who know what a carburettor is. It is a good time to visit.
