Village where Harry Styles lived becomes a tourist spot and is “invaded” by fans

Before 2010, Holmes Chapel was just another quiet, leafy village in the north of England . There was the small train station with services to Manchester and Crewe, a handful of local shops and, a short walk into town, the 180-year-old Twemlow Viaduct on the banks of the River Dane.

So a dimpled, curly-haired teenager who worked part-time at a local bakery came to London to audition for the TV show The X Factor. This teenager was Harry Styles who became part of the successful boy band One Direction before reaching new heights in his solo career.

Holmes Chapel’s fame began when it served as the backdrop for One Direction’s 2013 documentary “This Is Us.” For Styles’ legions of fans around the world — known as “Harries” — the places of his youth have become iconic pop culture hotspots.

The main destination is the viaduct where the artist had his first kiss and, in the documentary, wrote his name on the wall in chalk. But according to locals, with around 5,000 international fans visiting the village of 6,700 inhabitants each year, road safety has become a concern .

Holmes Chapel, the British village where musician and actor Harry Styles grew up, has launched a new walking tour for fans

Harry Styles rescued a baby mole

A year after the debut of a map with possible walks around the village, the community group Holmes Chapel Partnership launched, this weekend, Harry’s Village Tour.

It’s a leisurely 2.5 to 3 hour tour of Harry’s sights. — allowing plenty of time for selfies and social media content — guided by experts trained in both local history and legends about the artist, some of whom share what their encounters with him were like.

“My favorite memory of Harry Styles was when he helped me rescue a baby mole that my cats had brought into the house and that had hidden under the carpet,” recalls the tour guide. Jill Booth 58, who, as a former neighbor with a son the same age as the singer, has known Styles since he was a kid .

There were 150 candidates for the tour guide positions, many of them from abroad, and the interview process involved a questionnaire with 80 questions about the star and his hometown, as well as a trial performance on the viaduct.

Other guides, such as Isabella Boughey 21, from Stoke-on-Trent, has been a fan of Harry since the beginning of his career. As a child, Boughey watched The X Factor with her mother and since then, Harry has held a special place in her heart. “I love how he embodies happiness and positivity,” she tells CNN Travel .

‘The best job in the world’

The tour begins at Holmes Chapel train station, where the station agent Graham Blake has welcomed fans who have traveled from as far away as Australia and Mexico.

Blake remembers Styles at the station weekly, as he travelled to London for the X Factor. He was a “lovely lad”, she recalls. “He was always fashion-forward and everything. He would wear these jeans with his Calvin Klein underwear and a cute little hat.”

The agent shows us the sixth edition of the station’s guestbook, which is full of heartfelt messages from fans. Harry Styles’ father, From passes by there from time to time to pick up books with tributes and give them to his son.

Of his role as a guide for Harry’s fans, Blake says: “It’s made my job the best job in the world because I get to meet people from all over who come here to chat.”

The ticket booth is decorated with Harry Styles-themed memorabilia, including a life-size cutout. Another 2D Harry greets us at W. Mandeville Bakery, where staff and customers alike are unfazed by the media hoopla, clearly accustomed to the village’s newfound fame.

In the store windows, there are Harry Styles coloring books; bars advertise “Watermelon Sugar” cocktails. It would be a tough city for any Styles-weary resident.

In the village, there is an abundance of goods in the local shops.

Sailing through the English countryside

After buying sweets at W. Mandeville, fans often try to walk to Twemlow viaduct along the busy A305 road, where cars travel at about 80 km/h and there are no sidewalks.

The safest route, and the one Harry Styles and other local children would have taken, is a stroll through green fields and along the river.

On the way to the viaduct, visitors should also understand the Countryside Code of England and Wales, with its guidance on how to navigate private land and local animals.

With the overpass full, our tour group holds slate hearts we were given to write messages honoring Styles. The purpose of this is to prevent more graffiti inspired by the singer from covering the wall.

That doesn’t dissuade a herd of cattle from wandering among us, risking trampling the blanket on which fans are sitting making friendship bracelets.

Fans write on wall dedicated to Harry Styles

The friends Phoebe Hodges It is Mia Tesolin both 18, traveled from Canberra, Australia, to see Harry Styles’ hometown. “I like all the greenery and all the houses,” says Hodges. “The scenery is definitely very beautiful,” adds Tesolin.

The tour has not yet been officially approved by Harry Styles. although Peter Whiers chairman of the Holmes Chapel Partnership, tells CNN that they contacted their management team through their mother. The CNN has also reached out to his record label for comment.

This isn’t the first time Whiers has been linked to Styles through road safety. “I probably supervised his cycling skills when he was about 10,” says Whiers, who is responsible for preparing children at his school for the Cycling Proficiency Test, a national bicycle safety program.

“Love messages”

A place that The tour does not include the newly reopened Fortune City Chinese restaurant. which — when you peer through the dark windows on a Friday afternoon — looks like any other diner in the small town.

It was, however, where Harry Styles, aged 18, took his then-girlfriend, Taylor Swift, 23, on a date in 2012. A photo capturing the moment was shared on Twitter at the time, with the singer looking considerably more excited than Swift.

Whiers said to CNN that the fan base is predominantly made up of girls and young women and that they are “generally very respectful”. “I think when you look at the messages that they write in Graham’s book at the station and also the messages that they leave on the wall, they are all messages of love,” he says.

With our Holmes Chapel tour being a huge success, fans have chosen Harry Styles’ song “Treat People with Kindness” as their mantra.

The price tag, £20, seems steep, but the tour’s tourist map offers discounts at local businesses, which are expecting a good season of tourist T-shirt sales.

From Japan to Austria to the Balearics, there are small communities revolting against the takeover of their villages by tourists. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Source: CNN Brasil

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