A market town in England known for its cotton industry, Chorley is located around 20 miles North West of Manchester. In the 1970’s the town was home to a large number of factories which have now been demolished. A few that remain from the said period are Morrison’s chimney and some mill buildings. Chorley finds the origin of its name in two Anglo-Saxon words ‘Ceori’ and ‘ley’ where the former stands for a person of some status and the latter refer to a place name.
Education
Chorley has a number of primary schools which are supported both by the council as well as the church. There are six high schools in Chorley as listed below:
- Parklands High School
- Michael's CE High School
- Southlands High School
- Albany Academy
- Holy Cross Catholic High School
- Bishop Rawstorne CE Academy
Some of the privately owned schools also run just outside the borough. Children also go to the Runshaw College for further studies which have expanded now into the administration site of ROF Chorley. Another college in Chorley is the Lancashire College that also offers adult education. The Lancashire College also provides exhaustive residential courses to its students. The Chorley Training College (also known as the College Day Training College since 1960) was another college for Chorley based students that functioned till 1981.
Media
There are two local newspapers that serve the citizens of Chorley - the weekly Chorley Guardian and the free Chorley Citizen. Chorley’s radio station, the Chorley FM, is a famous radio station having been cited in the British comedy show on the television Phoenix Nights. The radio station got a full license to broadcast only in 2005. Earlier, the broadcasts took place for a few weeks.
A comedy series by Dave Spikey, Dead Man Weds, was based in Chorley. Most of the characters in Steve Pemberton’s The League of Gentlemen were taken from Adlington, located in Chorley.
Seal Films, which operates from Higher Wheelton, and is a film production company, was nominated for a short film in 2001 for a Royal Television Society Award.
Economy
The first industry that appeared in Chorley was mining.This can be seen today even as there is evidence of abandoned quarries today even in the outskirts of Chorley. The mining industry eventually gave way to the cotton mills.
The technology to manufacture trucks was borrowed from a neighbouring town, Leyland. Today even we can see trucks plying with the name Leyland imprinted on them in various parts of the world. During the Second World War, a large factory that was located on Pilling Lane was responsible for producing military vehicles and tanks.
During the latter half of the twentieth century, Chorley saw a decline in its manufacturing products as due to the Second World War. The losses occurred in important industries such as textiles, coal, motor vehicles and armaments industries.
Leyland Trucks and BAE Systems happen to be the biggest employers in Central Lancashire.
The companies which make their presence felt in Chorley are the BAE Systems, Telnet, FedEx, North West depot, CSC, Multipart Solutions Limited, Porter Lancastrian, and Merlin Cycles.
The initiative “Choose Chorley” launched by the Chorley Council in 2011 encouraged the small scale and large scale enterprises to invest in Chorley. The council also launched a website for the same purpose in 2014 at www.choosechorley.co.uk. The website provides introductions to important personalities of Edinburgh people in the town, financial incentives and tailored support for business growth to those who wish to invest in Chorley.
Transport
Chorley connects to the rest of the United Kingdom and the world through its ever busy transport system which includes:
Road
The A6 Roman road bisects Chorley straight through the town centre. The M61 also serves Chorley at Junction 6 and 8. also the M6 motorway connects to the west of Chorley with Junction 27. Also located on the M6 are the Charnock Richard services in Chorley Borough.
Bus
The following bus services connect Chorley to various parts of England
- Stagecoach North West
- Blackburn Bus Company
- National Express
Rail
Chorley railway station is the main central railway station in Chorley. The following rail services are running through the Chorley railway station:
- TransPennine Express – Services are offered to connect Manchester Airport and Windermere as also to Scotland without changing any rails in between.
- Chorley is connected to Bolton, Preston and Manchester through the Northern Manchester to Preston Line.
- Wigan-Blackburn Railway Line – Served Chorley up until 1960 when it was closed.
There are other railway stations also that are located within the borough
- on the Ormskirk Branch Line at Croston
- on the Wigan–Preston line at Euxton
- on the Manchester–Preston line at Adlington and Buckshaw Village
Waterways
Chorley has the Leeds and Liverpool Canals running in parallel to it.In the Chorley area, there are a number of marinas and locks that serve the citizens of Chorley by providing waterway services. They include:
- Cowling Launch, Chorley
- Riley Green, Hoghton
- Botany Bay Boatyard
- Top Lock, Whittle
- Botany Brow
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