being 27 in 1939, and continued at a lower level after the war: 26 in 1949, 30 in 1959 and 27 in 1969.

Small numbers by no means restricted the school’s activities. On 18th September 1952 two plays were performed by St Mary’s Abbey ‘arch’ by boys from Longmoor School, Long Eaton, and children from Dale school were in attendance. The plays re-enacted the election of an abbot and a Redman visitation. In 1969 a music licence was obtained and an operetta performed on Monday 16th June as part of the school’s centenary celebrations.

Over the years, the school had 18 head teachers, a Mr J. Cox being in post when the school eventually closed; he was assisted by Miss Pape. By this stage, children from the surrounding area were attending because there were only eight children in the village. The school finally closed in the late 1970s; as explained above, it then became used as the village’s hall until it re-opened as a school in unhappy circumstances in 1983. It is now (May 2013) about to close again as a primary school but to continue as a nursery.

In terms of its services, Dale village suffers somewhat, being small and out-of-the-way. Electricity came to the village, free, in 1938/9. Harvey Cross was going to be subject to a charge of £100 for its installation, so he waited till after the war; then he had to install it for his poultry incubators. One winter in the 1980s there was an unfortunate heavy fall of the ‘wrong’ sort of snow, which brought down the power lines all over the country: few, though, I imagine, had to wait two whole weeks before their electricity was restored to them, as we at Dale did. For the elderly living in the Cross Lea flats and entirely dependent on electricity, the solution was simple: John Heraty kept the Carpenter’s Arms open all day, and the refugees lived there: they appeared to enjoy it…

Gas came to the village in 1984: the installation charge was high, and we could not afford it, so Abbey House remains gasless. The team employed to install the gas pipes dug a trench all along the road in front of Abbey and Manor Houses, destroying monastic remains as it did so.

Dale’s roads are thought to have been rut and furrow till around 1912, when they were surfaced. They are still narrow country lanes, currently under threat of a 240% increase in traffic if the Stanton brownfields development goes ahead with no relief roads being created. There is already a 7.5 tonne weight restriction on the road through the village, which is widely ignored: it is not uncommon to find a container lorry unable to negotiate the sharp narrow bend by Arbour House, and having to reverse. That particular bend does not permit two larger vehicles, white vans, for instance, passing one another.