By Colette Hume BBC Wales education correspondent

Cross Inn was given to the village in 1855 by local John Jones

Cross Inn school, which opened near Aberystwyth in Ceredigion in 1855, had just two pupils.

The running costs of �45,000 a year per child made the two-room primary school one of the most expensive, eclipsing the fees of Eton and Harrow.

Ceredigion Council decided to close the school after a steep drop in the number of pupils and the rising costs of keeping it open.

The parents of the two remaining pupils fought a long campaign to save the school, stalling its closure by a year.

Nine-year-old Rebecca Smith and 11-year-old Lowri Reid said they were sad to see the school close.

They said they enjoyed the one-to-one attention they received from their teacher and her assistant, but the girls admitted there were downsides.

It is fun, but if Lowri has gone somewhere I can get lonely too Rebecca Smith [above, right]

"It's quite good, but sometimes I feel a bit lonely because if Becky's not here, I'm all alone," said Lowri.

"It is fun," adds Rebecca, "but if Lowri has gone somewhere I can get lonely too."

The campaign to keep the school open was led by Lowri's mother Lisa Reid, whose parents and grandparents were educated at Cross Inn. She said small schools were a vital part of the community.

"No village school should have to close, but there are no pupils left," she said.

"They chose to go to other schools so we had no choice. We kept going as long as we could. We've just got to the stage where it's closed itself."

The school was given to the village in 1855 by local man John Jones - a distant relation of Lisa and Lowri Reid. For more than 150 years, it provided education for local children.

During World War II, the school roll grew to more than 100 as children from Liverpool and London were evacuated to the west Wales coast.

Cost was the major factor, we haven't criticised the standard of the education, that's excellent, but there's only so much money to play with and we have to live with that Councillor Emlyn Thomas

But in recent years, the number of children going to the school has fallen and the costs of keeping the school open have risen.

A total of 70% of the money given to schools by the assembly is based on the number of children on register, and as the numbers fall, budgets shrink.

Councillor Emlyn Thomas, cabinet member with responsibility for education, said: "The numbers have declined dramatically and the cost per head is huge - �45,000 a child compared with the average of �3,700 across the county," he said.

"Cost was the major factor, we haven't criticised the standard of the education, that's excellent, but there's only so much money to play with and we have to live with that."

Councils across Wales are warning that they face similar pressures, but rural campaigners argue that closing small schools has a huge impact on life for people in the country.