Old Dalby

Old Dalby is a village in the English county of Leicestershire. It is located to the north-west of Melton Mowbray. It was originally known as "Wold Dalby" or "Dalby on the Wolds". The population is included in the civil parish of Broughton and Old Dalby.

Old Dalby has its own village school, church, Scout Hut, a retirement home, the Belvoir Brewery. and, from August 2015 after a closure lasting over a year, the old but newly refurbished pub called 'The Crown'. Villagers failed in campaigning against the closure of the post office. Sadly, the village shop which was located at the edge of the industrial estate is now also closed.

Once a year, on the August bank holiday Monday, the village holds a fête known as "Old Dalby Day" to raise money for charities connected with the village. The fête has a thirty-year history, features many events and attracts visitors from many miles around.

The Knights Hospitallers owned a preceptory in the village.

The Village Hall is located at the heart of the village and embodies much of the community spirit in Old Dalby. It is the meeting place of several local societies, with Old Dalby WI amongst these. The weekly Sunday papers are sold there.

Old Dalby is the location of the control centre of the former British Rail Research Division's railway test track, which runs between Melton Mowbray and Edwalton and which was universally known in the industry as simply 'Old Dalby'. Following privatisation of the UK railways, the test track was taken over by Alstom and electrified on the 25 kV overhead system in order to test the Virgin Trains tilting Pendolino fleet. During this upgrade phase, which began in 2000, the centre of operations moved from Old Dalby to Asfordby (on the outskirts of Melton Mowbray) where a depot was converted from the former National Coal Board's buildings. However, with the demise of Alstom as a train builder in the UK, the future of the test track looked bleak and there was a real possibility that it might have been closed.

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Wikipedia