Family 'totally disappointed' after 50 mile journey to real life ITV Emmerdale village

A family were left totally 'disappointed' after travelling around 50 miles to visit the real-life village Emmerdale is modelled on.

Emmerdale fans Chris King and Zoe Brodie travelled all the way to Esholt, a village near Guiseley, Leeds, for a day out with their two-year-old son Ronnie. They said they wanted to check out the location behind the popular ITV soap.

Esholt was the location used to film Emmerdale’s external shots from 1976 until 1996. Filming then moved to Harewood, where a replica of Esholt was built for filming.

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The village has the real-life Woolpack pub featured in the show, and frequently had fans visiting on coach tours before the pandemic. But Chris and Zoe were left bitterly 'disappointed' by their visit in the rain on Thursday, LeedsLive reports.

Zoe, a social care worker, said: “It’s really disappointing, it’s nothing like Emmerdale.”

Chris, a lorry driver, added: “It is but from 25 or 30 years ago. It looks like the Emmerdale from the 90s. We thought we’d have a look around, recognise it all and have some food.”

The dreary and cold weather did not help. They were also disappointed The Woolpack wasn’t serving food on the day of their visit.

The couple have three children in total, aged 21, 14 and two. They spent their time wandering around the small village with their youngest son Ronnie in his pram and a big umbrella, looking at the sites and hoping to recognise locations from the show.

Zoe said: “We didn’t know what to expect, we thought it was going to be a bit bigger. It’s bigger on the telly I suppose, it always looks bigger on the telly.

“We thought we’d see a few things that were familiar, like oh here’s