Are you looking for a new long Leicestershire walking route to see you through lockdown and beyond?
If you’re near to Great Glen then we’ve got a great 8 mile route that’ll take you past a coffee and cake stop, one of Leicestershire’s most beautiful churches and you can even tie in a takeaway Sunday lunch too.
The route, put together by Fleckney Walking Club, goes Great Glen – Little Stretton – King’s Norton – Burton Overy – Great Glen and is around 8 miles long.
You can start your walk anywhere along the route but we recommend heading first to Pennbury Farm (open for takeaway Tuesday – Sunday) for coffee, cakes or a bacon sandwich to take with you. From there you’ll head to Little Stretton and then to King’s Norton, where you’ll find one of Leicestershire’s finest churches. The incredible Gothic Revival Church of St John The Baptist is claimed by many to be the finest Gothic church in the Midlands.
From King’s Norton you’ll then go towards Burton Overy and if you time it right during lockdown you can pick up a takeaway Sunday lunch en route. The Bell is doing Sunday lunches to be collected from the pub between 12pm – 4.30pm on the day, with 3 courses available. You’ll need to pre-order in the morning before you set off though. As the days get longer through the year you can also pick up takeaway from 5.30pm – 8.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Check out their Facebook page for menus.
Also in Burton Overy, why not stop by Kingarth Farm Dairy? Their milk shed is open from 7am – 7pm with fresh farm milk, milkshakes, cream and more. The perfect mid-walk stop.
After your food stop you’ll head back to Great Glen, passing The Pug & Greyhound (currently closed during lockdown) and back round to your starting point.
You can view the Google map with markers below or HERE and see directions written out below courtesy of Fleckney Walking Club.
Directions (courtesy of Fleckney Walking Club)
Park at the recreation ground (off Bindleys Lane) car park and head west past the Social Club building and then north along the footpath. This path leads past the entrance to Pennbury Farm, where you can stop to pick up coffees, cakes and treats for the walk. You’ll go past the Sewage Works, and past the site of the Medieval Village of Stretton Magna before coming out onto Gartree Road opposite Mere Road.
Turn right onto Gartree Road and then left at the next junction. The road leads you into Little Stretton, but just before the village you can go over the stile by a cattle grid to the left of the road and take the tree-lined path through the Manor grounds.
The footpath will take you past the church and bring you out onto Church Row where you turn left at the junction and follow the lane all the way to the end where it meets Gaulby Road. (There is a short cut across a field from the lane to Gaulby Road but it may be a little bit muddy depending on the weather!)
Whichever way you go, turn left onto Gaulby Road and head away from King’s Norton until the road crosses the River Sence after where there is a lay-by on the right leading to a footpath running parallel with Stretton Lane. Follow this path until you reach the cross-path between Cotterill Spinney and Larch Spinney. Turn right here and follow the path southeast along the edge of Larch Spinney to your left and past Norton Gorse on your right. Immediately after the Gorse the path forks.
Either fork will take you into the village of King’s Norton via Gaulby Road. If you took the right fork turn left and head east until you reach the junction with Main Street on your right. If you took the left fork you exit opposite Main Street. This is pretty much the highest part of the walk.
Stroll down Main Street and here you’ll find the beautiful Gothic Revival Church of St. John the Baptist. Take the road to the left past the church and follow it round until you reach a gateway on the right with a footpath leading across the fields (four of them). This path heads southwest and then south until it reaches Gartree Road. Turn left onto Gartree and then almost immediately right onto another footpath leading across a further 4 fields until it exits onto Elms Lane. Turn right along the lane and then left onto Scotland Lane. Follow this lane into Main Street and keep going until you reach The Bell pub on your right.
Once you’ve visited the pub continue along Main Street and turn right into Bell Lane and then left onto Beadswell Lane. Follow this lane past the side of a house and onto another footpath. This last path leads you across no less than eight fields downhill onto London Road where you turn right to enter Great Glen. Continue along London Road before turning off onto Main Street opposite the Pug and Greyhound. Turn left onto Church Road and finally right onto Bindleys Lane and thence back to the car park at the recreation ground.