by Elvis Presley had Graceland. Dolly Parton owns Dollywood. Harry Styles has a railway viaduct on the Cheshire countryside mudflats.
It may not compare to the grand estates of some megastars but fans from around the world are descending on the sleepy village of Holmes Chapel to pay tribute to its most famous former resident.
More than 5,000 Styles fans – or Harries, as they are known – have visited the tiny parish in the past year, almost equal to its entire population, prompting community organizers to launch a recruitment drive for super fans to conducting official tours.
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Peter Whiers, a retired nuclear engineer who oversaw the search, said supporters from as far afield as Argentina, the United States and Spain had flocked to the famous concert after it was announced this week. .
However, he said they were looking for someone closer to home unless they have an aunt abroad “where they can live with her”.
Whiers, chairman of the Holmes Chapel Partnership, said Styles’ fans had been flocking to the village since the Grammy-winning singer rose to fame on The X Factor in 2010 – but had been a regular for the past two years.
One father and daughter flew nearly 6,000 miles from Japan just for a day trip before traveling straight back, he said: “I don’t think that’s unusual. It’s almost like a religion now,” Whiers said.
The mecca of this pop pilgrimage is the 180-year-old Twemlow Viaduct on the banks of the Dane, where Styles apparently had his first kiss. The massive railway bridge was a headline achievement when it was built in 1841. Now, thanks to Styles signing his name on its historic arch, it has its own hashtag on TikTok.
“It’s really big,” said Alyssa Fleming, 17, as she added her name to the Grade II-listed structure, now known as Harry’s Wall, along with thousands of others.
The teenager, from Belfast, traveled by ferry with her parents just to visit the mural – and to pick up some Styles items in London’s Camden Market.
But not for the weak-hearted to visit the viaduct. Last year, Holmes Chapel Partnership warned that fans were “risking life and limb” by crossing the notorious A-road to get to the site.
Some tourists aren’t sure which way to look on Britain’s roads, Whiers said. Others are left confused by the kissing gates. A free map was released last March (now on sale on eBay for £5) and aims to guide Harries across country fields to avoid the 50mph main road.
But the new way has its own dangers: namely, British times. The half-mile riverside ride is a mud bath for much of the year and there are quite a few excited cows in the spring.
“We’ve got a few problems to deal with – like frisky cows,” Whiers, 67, said from the safety of a barbed-wire fence after a small herd chased the Guardian on Thursday.
Another issue is the mud, he said: “The difficulty is: if you’re coming from Peru, are you really going to bring wellies because this is the only time they’re going to be needed from you – on the mudflats of Holmes Chapel.”
Many fans describe visiting the railroad mural as an emotional experience. Fleming, who lives almost 200 miles away, said it was a “home away from home”. Her mother, Anne Fleming, 45, said: “It was sentimental to know that everyone else had made the camel journey to get there too. It is very bad.”
The tours will start in June at a cost of £20 per person. Town residents expect to sell out immediately and hope to help businesses recover from the recession.
They begin at Holmes Chapel train station, staffed by comic supervisor Graham Blake, who knows the Styles family.
Blake, 62, sold Harry the train tickets that started his journey to fame and pictures of the pair adorn his small ticket office. It is the first point of contact for international visitors who arrive, a bit lost, often directly from Manchester airport.
“This is our little shrine,” he says, pointing to a table with Styles’ artwork and guest books for fans to leave messages, five of which were given to the former One Direction frontman on his 30th birthday in February .
Harries says they are often drawn to nature down to the land of the stars, but for some people their hometown is a little too real.
One fan was left in tears on her 18th birthday after falling down a muddy slope. Two Danish youths in tight white jeans had to seek help from a hardware store after suffering the same fate.
Others take their fandom a little too far: “One girl asked me what Harry smelled like,” says Blake. “I said I don’t really go sniffing my passengers.”
Despite W Mandeville, a fourth-generation family bakery where Styles used to work as a part-time cleaner, Laura Mulry, 18, explains why she and her friend drove 50 miles from Walsall to be in this quiet village.
“There are a lot of celebrities out there and you don’t feel close to them because they’re so irreconcilable,” she said. “Harry seems so human.”
