Ringo Starr's Old School Dingle Vale Toxteth Liverpool 8
Ringo's Old School
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| Ringo Starr's school Dingle Vale A lot has been said about the schools where Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison attended. John Lennon went to Quarry Bank, which gave the name to his first band, The Quarrymen. Paul and George attended the Liverpool Institute. But which school did Ringo go to? |
Dingle Vale
While the schools where the other Beatles attended have been knocked down or changed beyond recognition, Ringo's former school Dingle Vale is still very much as it was when Ringo was there in the 1950's as we can see in the above drone photo which you can click on to enlarge. The original building took on a rectangular shape with a corridor through the centre which formed two square courtyards.
When Ringo attended, the building was split into two halves, D section was to the left of the chimney at the centre which was for the girls, and V section to the right for the boys. The school itself is named after the road it is on, the school being on one side and terraced houses on the other as you can see in the photo.
Madryn Street, where Ringo lived as a child was half a mile away, so it would have only taken a young Richard Starkey ten minutes or so to walk each way.
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| Former Festival Site Could Be seen From The School |
The above photo shows a aerial view of the former International Garden Festival site held in 1984.
The scene would have been different to the one Ringo saw as he looked out of one of the classrooms towards the River Mersey and the Welsh mountains beyond. At that time, there was an oil jetty as well as storage tanks. As we can see, new houses now take up the space and the Liverpool council are deciding what to do with the remaining land that was part of the garden festival.
Shorefields Comprehensive
In 1973, the school changed it's name to Shorefields, becoming a mixed comprehensive. Separation of the boys and girls was done away with. The D and V sections were kept to make it easier to find classrooms, such as D15 and V15.
Quite a few cast members of Willy Russell's 1976 BBC film 'Our Day Out' attended the school as well as Strictly Come Dancing singer Tommy Blaize.Willy Russel himself taught at the school in earlier years.
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| Shorefields Seahorse Logo |
The above photo shows the Shorefields School seahorse logo which was sewn onto school blazers as well as school stationery.
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| Now called King's Academy |
The drone gets an aerial view of Shorefields. Many new buildings have been added over the years, but thankfully, the main original building still remains although there are some modifications to the centre corridor and courtyard. The first building to be added apart from the main building was the 'Tower Block'(top left), which was completed December 1975. There were also some Pre-fab buildings either end which were used for art classes and metalwork.
Observe the railway line at the top of the picture. This ran under the school playing field and a noticeable 'rumbling' could be heard during lessons as the trains ran frequently underneath.
Perhaps this is what helped a young Ringo develop rhythm for when he would join a certain band called The Beatles.
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| Dingle Vale/ Shorefields Playfield |
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| Dingle Vale and Surrounding Area |
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| 1984 International Garden Festival Site |
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| South Liverpool Waterfront From Dingle |
Click the image above to watch the Shorefields Drone video
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