Holmes Chapel in Cheshire gets around 5,000 Harry Styles fans visiting every year, and now obsessives can take a guided tour around the village where he grew up
If you want to see Harry Styles’ childhood stomping ground As It Was, you’re in luck. Fans of the megastar can buy tickets to guided tours of the village where he grew up.
Sights include the railway viaduct where he had his first kiss, the bakery where he worked while auditioning for The X Factor, and the Chinese restaurant he took Taylor Swift to. Superfans have been hired to lead two-and-a-half-hour walking tours around Holmes Chapel in Cheshire.
They include American Gillian Calbi, 23, from New Jersey, who is studying in Manchester. She described it as her “dream job”, adding: “I’ve seen him now in concert 10 times and in total 16 times including One Direction.”
Another guide, Ben McCormick, 16, is a pupil at Harry’s old school and reckons he was hired for his local knowledge. He described the application process as “tough”, adding: “I’ve heard that hundreds applied. They clearly decided they were going to take a shot with me, just like Simon Cowell did with Harry.”
The village is inundated with the singer’s fans, dubbed ‘Harries’, with more than 5,000 visiting last year. Not-for-profit organisation the Holmes Chapel Partnership has already created a Harry Styles trail but hopes guides will improve road safety in the village.
A thousand £20 tickets for the “pilgrimage experience” are up for grabs on its website, with the tours starting next weekend. Harry, 30, found fame on The X Factor in 2010 and has had four number ones with One Direction and two as a solo artist.