Place:Great Glen, Leicestershire, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Great Glen (or Great Glenn), also known as Glen Magna, is a village in Leicestershire, 2 miles south of Oadby on the outskirts of Leicester. Leicester City centre is about seven miles northwest. 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.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Great Glen was the central place of an early Anglo-Saxon multiple estate.^[1] The settlements that comprised this estate are: Great and Little Stretton, Wistow, Newton Harcourt, Fleckney and Kilby. These parishes comprise the minimal extent of the estate which broadly follow the River Sence, Glen itself possibly taking its name from an earlier British river-name Glen or from Glennos meaning valley.^[2] It is possible that the estate extended further west along the river to Glen Parva where it joins the River Soar. It has not been possible to establish this securely. Glen (as at glenne, not Great Glen) enters the record for the first time in AD 849, when Alhhun, bishop of Worcester tarried there with nine of his clerics to issue a charter granting lands in Worcestershire to King Beorhtwulf of Mercia.^[3]

The medieval manorial history of Glen is outlined by John Nichols in his History of Leicestershire.^[4] In the 16th century, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, father of 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.

The old public house, The Fox and Goose, is still visible on Church Lane but has been converted to a private residence.

Research Tips

• The map on the place-page for Billesdon Rural District illustrate the location of the various parishes.
• Victoria County History - Leicestershire - Vol 5, pp102-112 - Parish: Great Glen. (London, 1964) British History Online. University of London.
• From this Findmypast page you can browse the Leicestershire parishes which have parish register transcripts online.
• From this Ancestry page you can browse the Leicestershire parishes which have parish register transcripts online.
• For both of the above sites, a subscription is charged. Transcriptions of these records may also be available free of charge on the FamilySearch website.
• A further collection of online source references will be found on the county page for Leicestershire.