Village heritage
Rearsby
A willow-lined brook, a seven-arch bridge and a low-hill church anchor a village with Wreake-valley paths and an aircraft story.
- Best for
- Village heritage and Wreake-valley walking
- Give it
- A relaxed half day
- Don't miss
- The seventh bridge arch hiding in the grass bank
The Fox verdict
A Wreake-valley village with several stories to follow
Rearsby brings together a seven-arch bridge, medieval church, valley paths, two contrasting pubs and an unexpected aircraft legacy.
The brook and its willows form the village's heart, with the granite packhorse bridge as a well-loved focus. Add the Leicestershire Round through the Wreake Valley, St Michael and All Angels on its low hill and the two pubs on Melton Road, and there is enough for an unhurried visit without inventing a larger attraction circuit.
Where to go
Places in Rearsby
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesHorse & Groom
A traditional community pub with a large beer garden, a small children's play area and a long-alley skittles run that doubles as a function room.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- on the former main Melton Road
- Access
- Food availability has been intermittent.
Seven Arch Packhorse Bridge
A granite packhorse bridge rebuilt in 1714, with seven arches and three rounded cutwaters on its east side; the seventh arch hides in the grass bank.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 20 minutes
- Locality
- over Rearsby Brook
Leicestershire Round
The long-distance circular passes through Rearsby, with the path running via Thrussington Mill towards Rotherby and Frisby on the Wreake.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 120 minutes
- Locality
- picked up by the Convent
Food & drink
1 placeThe Wheel Inn
A traditional pub in a former terrace of cottages, serving Indian food with choices including Chilli Paneer, Mixed Grill Sizzler and Paneer Dopiaza.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- at the junction of Brook Street and Melton Road
History & heritage
1 placeChurch of St Michael and All Angels
A Grade II* church, largely of the late 13th and early 14th centuries, with a Perpendicular west tower, a 13th-century font and monuments to Richard and Sarah Benskin.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- on a low hill north of the brook
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Three ways to explore Rearsby
Signature outings
Find the Seventh Arch
Look across the granite packhorse bridge for six obvious arches and the seventh hiding in the grass bank.
Climb to the Village Church
See the white-ashlar west tower and a church whose fabric is largely late 13th and early 14th century.
Order an Indian Dinner
The Wheel Inn serves Indian food in a former terrace of cottages, with Chilli Paneer, Mixed Grill Sizzler and Paneer Dopiaza among the named dishes.
The village story
Rearsby Village Guide
Two pubs, a willow-lined brook, valley paths and layers of village history.
The Two Village Pubs
The Wheel Inn serves Indian food every evening in a building that used to be a terrace of cottages knocked together. You choose your meat, then you choose your sauce. The signature dishes are Chilli Paneer, the Mixed Grill Sizzler and Paneer Dopiaza, and Tuesday is curry night, where the value is. One reviewer called it "an authentic taste of Indian food"; another warned the prices have gone up. It sits at the junction of Brook Street and Melton Road, a small public bar on the right for locals and dining rooms to the left, and CAMRA lists it as a historic pub — not, as the conservation appraisal puts it, over-modernised.
A few doors along is the Horse & Groom, the more conventional of the two. Four regular beers, a large beer garden, a children's play area, and a long-alley skittles run that doubles as a function room. There are darts, petanque and skittles teams, pizza when the kitchen is on, and live music on Saturday evenings in summer. The bar staff get singled out for praise more often than the menu does.
Lost Shops and the Seven-Arch Bridge
There are no shops now, and no post office. The old shopfront on the corner of Brook Street survives as a heritage feature, which is the polite term for a shop that has stopped being a shop. For groceries you drive to East Goscote or Syston; Melton Mowbray, eight miles off, is where the pork pie and Stilton come from.
The village arranges itself around Rearsby Brook, willow-lined and crossed by a granite packhorse bridge of seven arches — six easy to spot, the seventh, per the appraisal, "hiding in the grass bank, must be sought for." The bridge was rebuilt in 1714 by, tradition holds, six men in nine days for eleven pounds two shillings and tuppence. Approaching, the whole place looks like a cluster of trees with houses inside it, unusual in the flat arable land around here.
Valley Paths and Sacred History
The Leicestershire Round passes straight through, picked up by the convent and running down the Wreake valley to Rotherby and Frisby. A longer circular out to Frisby and Brooksby is eight and a half miles of field paths with no real hills. Local walks cross the fords; at the end of Manor Farm one leads into Bog Lane, described without embellishment as "a muddy footpath and tractor way."
A priest was recorded here in the Domesday Book, so there was already a church. St Michael and All Angels still stands on its low hill north of the brook, largely 13th and 14th century, hidden by trees in summer. John Wesley is said to have preached from the Blue Stone by the brook in 1753; the stone is still there in the grass.
Auster Aircraft and Changing Connections
The other fact about Rearsby is aircraft. In 1939 the Taylorcraft factory began building light planes here on a village aerodrome, and the design became the Auster — 1,604 turned out during the war. The site is a business park now.
Syston station is four miles off on the Leicester–Melton line; the village lost its own in 1951. The bypass took the through-traffic out in 2004, which is why Brookside, running east and west along the willow edge, still has the feel of a quiet country street. The ford is where the children go.
Stay around Leicestershire
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Leicestershire, linked directly to their property pages.
Rearsby
Vanessa's Haven - with hot tub and free parking for 3 cars!!
- Sleeps 5
- 3 bedrooms
Queniborough
Felicity's House with Hot Tub!
- Sleeps 8
- 3 bedrooms
Syston
Tilly's Townhouse with Parking
- Sleeps 4
- 2 bedrooms
Leicester
Rachel's House with Parking!
- Sleeps 12
- 4 bedrooms
Leicester
Upperton House - Central 5 Bedroom
- Sleeps 9
- 5 bedrooms
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Wheel Inn — wheelinnrearsby.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Horse & Groom — camra.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St Michael and All Angels — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Seven Arch Packhorse Bridge — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Leicestershire Round — leicestershire.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access