The China Mail - Harry Styles fans head in one direction: to star's home village

But having played a formative part in Harry Styles' rise to global superstardom, nothing can be as it was for the village near Manchester, in northwest England.

Fans from around the world -- dubbed Harries -- flock there year-round to pay homage at several sites linked to the "Watermelon Sugar" singer.

With the ex-One Direction member releasing a new album and staging a Manchester concert Friday, recent weeks have been extra busy.

"I've been looking forward to this day for too long!" Spanish student Elena Garcia, 21, told AFP as she visited this week with two friends.

Like other Styles pilgrims before them, they stopped by the village train station where the ticket office has become a shrine of sorts, as well as the bakery where he once worked.

And, of course, they made their way to a spectacular viaduct where Harries have for years been leaving messages -- after Styles wrote his own name there in the 2013 One Direction biopic "This Is Us".

The 32-year-old pop sensation is also famously said to have had his first kiss beneath its 23 arches.

"It was just beautiful," Katharina, 22, another of the trio, from Germany, said of the site known as Harry's Wall. "Having the name on the wall's a big thing."

These days, fans are encouraged to sign and leave behind small slate stones to preserve the 180-year-old viaduct's brickwork.

- 'Demand' -

Holmes Chapel -- population nearly 7,000 -- has welcomed thousands of Harries over the years.

Numbers swelled after he played two huge gigs in Manchester in 2022, according to the Holmes Chapel Partnership non-profit.

It handed out 5,000 maps showing Styles points-of-interest the following year. It then started offering near-daily guided tours for much of 2024.

Peter Whiers, who heads the partnership, noted the response was "phenomenal" with people "arriving at all sorts of different times a day" to see the sights.

"It became a little bit difficult to meet the demand," he noted.

"For every one person on the guided tour, there were probably another 10 that came here and did it under their own steam."

Bartender Chloe Thomason, a self-proclaimed superfan from nearby Congleton, was one of the 11 guides hired after acing an 80-question exam about Styles and Holmes Chapel.

The 24-year-old -- who is set to attend Friday's album-reveal concert -- cherished the period.

"I loved finding out about everybody... how they found Harry, if they were a new fan, an old fan... and it was just so good."

The tours are now self-guided, with the partnership offering an online version for fans worldwide who cannot make it to Holmes Chapel.

- 'Heights' -

Styles moved to the village as a youngster, attending schools there and later beginning his journey to A-lister status on trains to London for 2010's The X Factor.

At the auditions he described it as "quite boring" but "picturesque".

Later that year, he was chosen to be part of One Direction, remaining in the boyband until a late 2015 indefinite hiatus.

Its members launched solo careers and none has enjoyed more subsequent success than the boy from Holmes Chapel.

At Mandeville's Bakery, fans take selfies next to a full-length poster photo of a teenage Styles wearing an apron, taken when he worked there part-time.

Down the road, a Chinese restaurant he reportedly took Taylor Swift to when they briefly dated more than a decade ago is also a magnet for Harries.

Meanwhile the station now features a mural bearing his image, designed by two local artists.

Graham Blake, the station master for 28 years, can still remember the budding performer bound for the capital.

"I knew he had talent. He used to sing on the platform... 'Kings of Leon' and stuff like that," he told AFP.

"He had a good voice but I never thought he'd reached the heights that he has now. It's incredible. But it's all hard work."

A fans message book in his memorabilia-packed ticket office -- all provided by Harries -- has reached its 12th volume.

Styles' dad, who still lives nearby, collects each one once full, with the star also known to stop by occasionally.

He has visited his old school, once donating computers, according to a long-time local Andrea Pearson, whose wedding Styles attended.

"We're just so proud of him," she said. "He's never forgotten his roots."

B.Clarke--ThChM