There was no known occupation in Chorley until the Middle Ages, though archaeological evidence has shown that the area around the town has been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age.<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report13">Template:Cite book</ref> There are various remains of prehistoric occupation on the nearby Anglezarke Moor, including the Round Loaf tumulus which is believed to date from 3500 BC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
A pottery burial urn from this period was discovered in 1963 on land next to Astley Hall Farm and later excavation in the 1970s revealed another burial urn and four cremation pits dating from the Bronze Age.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
During the Roman era a Roman road ran near Chorley between Wigan and Walton-le-Dale.<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report13"/> Hoards dating from the Roman period have also been found nearby at Whittle-le-Woods and Heapey.<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report13"/>
Chorley first appears in historical records in the mid thirteenth century as part of the portion of the Croston Lordship acquired by William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, around 1250.<ref name="ChorleyVCR">Template:Cite web</ref> The Earl established Chorley as a small borough comprising a two-row settlement arranged along what later became Market Street.<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report13"/> It appears that the borough was short lived, as it does not appear in a report of a commission on the Leyland Hundred in 1341.<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report1">Template:Cite book</ref> It is most likely that the borough was sacked by the Scots during the Great Raid of 1322, with Chorley being one of the southernmost points reached in Northern England. This led to the construction of a Peel tower, which said to have been located somewhere close to Duxbury Hall.
The manorial history of Chorley is complex as the manor had no single lord throughout most of this period, as it had been split into moieties and was managed by several different families.<ref name="ChorleyVCR"/> This led to Chorley having several manorial halls, which in this period included Chorley Hall, built in the 14th century by the de Chorley family, which has since the 19th or 20th century been demolished. Very little is known of Chorley Hall, although according to what the painter John Bird painted in 1795, its location to where it once stood is said to have been where The Parish of St Laurence Church of England Primary School now stands, with phantom steps near to the school within Astley Park being the only physical clue to the hall's existence. There is also Lower Chorley Hall, which was owned by the Gillibrand family from 1583 (later rebuilt in the 19th century as Gillibrand Hall).<ref name="ChorleyVCR"/><ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report14">Template:Cite book</ref> It is believed the borough of Chorley was not a success in this period because of the lack of manorial leadership and the dispersed nature of the small population.<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report14"/>
St Laurence's Church is the oldest remaining building in Chorley and first appears in historical records when it was dedicated in 1362, though it is believed there was already an earlier Anglo-Saxon chapel on the site which was a daughter foundation of Croston Parish Church.<ref name="ChorleyVCR"/><ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report14"/> It is believed that the church is named after Saint Laurence, an Irish saint who died in Normandy in the 12th century, whose bones were conveyed to the church by local noble Sir Rowland Standish<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Duxbury,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> an ancestor of Myles Standish (an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military adviser for their Plymouth expedition to the New World).Template:Citation needed
Chorley was granted a market charter by Henry VII in 1498 and have since held it every Tuesday. Before the reformation, it would coincide with a fair that was held annually on the feast of St Lawrence.<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report1"/>
Chorley, like most Lancashire towns, gained its wealth from the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century which was also responsible for the town's growth. Chorley was a vital cotton town with many mills littering the skyline up to the late twentieth century. Most mills were demolished between the 1950s and 2000s with those remaining converted for modern business purposes. Today only a minority remain in use for actual manufacturing, and the last mill to stop producing textiles was Lawrence's in 2009.<ref>John Harrison 'William Lawrence's Mills, Lyons Lane, Chorley, Lancs', Chorley Historical and Archaeological Society, retrieved from http://www.chorleyhistorysociety.co.uk/w_lawrence_1_0510updt.htm on 25 April 2014.</ref>
Also, given its location on the edge of Lancashire Coalfield, Chorley was vital in coal mining. Several pits existed in Duxbury Woods, the Gillibrand area and more numerously in Coppull. Chisnall Hall Colliery at Coppull was considered the biggest Lancashire pit outside of Wigan and one of many located in the Chorley suburb. The last pit in the area to close was the Ellerbeck Colliery in 1987 which was located south of Chorley, between Coppull and Adlington.
St Mary's Roman Catholic Church is based in the town centre at Mount Pleasant. The parish was founded in 1847, in a chapel in Chapel Street. The land for the church was purchased in 1851 and the first building erected in 1853. It was opened in June 1853.Template:Citation needed The church can sit 750 persons. Pugin & Pugin of London and Hansom are the architects.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Chorley United Reformed Church<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is one of the oldest and largest United Reformed Churches in the north west.Template:Citation needed Founded in 1792 as an Independent Church it later affiliated to the Congregational church and in 1972 voted to become part of the new United Reformed Church (URC).Template:Citation needed The church is home to the oldest Scout Troop in the town, established in 1919.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In January 2017 it was announced that the church building, which had been at its current site since 1792, would be demolished, and the congregation relocated to other premises.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These plans never came to fruition and the church building was instead refurbished in 2020.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In the north of the town, there is a park containing a meeting house and a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The temple, which is regarded as a local landmark,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is the largest LDS temple in Europe<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and named the Preston England Temple.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Construction on the temple commenced in 1994 and was completed in 1998. Connected to the temple campus is the England Missionary Training Centre for the LDS Church which houses church representatives preparing to fill proselytizing and service assignments in Great Britain and other parts of Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Chorley's first mosque<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is on the corner of Brooke Street and Charnock Street. The building officially opened in March 2006, having been in planning for over three years. A second mosque opened in 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The population of the Municipal Borough of Chorley remained roughly static in the 20th century, with the 1911 census showing 30,315 people and the 1971 census showing 31,665. Under the Local Government Act 1972, Chorley became the core of a larger non-metropolitan district on 1 April 1974. The present Borough of Chorley has forty-two councillors, representing 14 three-member electoral wards in Chorley town council.
The principal river in the town is the Yarrow. The Black Brook is a tributary of the Yarrow. The name of the River Chor was back-formed from Chorley and runs not far from the centre of the town, notably through Astley Park. Chorley is located at the foot of the West Pennine Moors and is overlooked by Healey Nab, a small hill which is part of the West Pennine Moors. It is the seat for the Borough of Chorley, which is made up of Chorley and its surrounding villages.
Chorley had a population of 33,424 at the 2001 census, with the wider borough of Chorley having a population of 101,991. Chorley forms a conurbation with Preston and Leyland and was once proposed as being designated part of the Central Lancashire New Town under the New Towns Act,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a proposal which was eventually scaled back.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The first signs of industry, as with many towns in Lancashire, was mining; evidence of which can be seen by the various abandoned quarries on the outskirts of the town. One of these is Anglezarke Quarry, between Chorley and Horwich. Remnants of mining include an old railway bridge from the Duxbury Mine off Wigan Lane. Eventually, the mining industry was replaced by cotton mills.
Manufacture of trucks was inherited from the neighbouring town of Leyland. A large factory on Pilling Lane produced, including military vehicles and tanks during the Second World War.
After the Second World War, production was reduced and the final part of the site was closed in 2008 by BAE Systems.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A large part of the site has been redeveloped for residential and industrial use as Buckshaw Village.
Through the twentieth century, especially the latter half, Chorley suffered the loss of much of its manufacturing capacity with great losses in or the completely disappearance of its coal, textiles, motor vehicles and armaments industries.
In 2011, Chorley Council launched an initiative, Choose Chorley, to encourage SMEs and large businesses to relocate to Chorley. The initiative offers red carpet introductions to key people in the town, financial incentives and tailored support for business growth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The town is the home of the Chorley cake. Every October, the Chorley Cake Street Fair promotes the cakes, with a competition for local bakers to produce the largest ever Chorley cake; the event restarted in 1995.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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Chorley is served by the local NHS hospital Chorley and South Ribble Hospital which is located on Euxton Lane, in addition to a private hospital located in Euxton. The town also had another major hospital formerly on Eaves Lane, before this closed in the 1990s. There was also the Heath Charnockisolation hospital on Hut Lane which dealt with infectious diseases before reverting to use for long term patients, before closing in the 1990s.
Chorley town centre is bisected by the A6 Roman road. It is located near to junctions 6 and 8 of the M61 motorway and junction 27 of the M6; Charnock Richard services are sited within the borough.
The town's bus station, Chorley Interchange, opened in February 2003, replacing an older building. Services are provided by several operators:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In March 2025, Many bus service changes happened in Chorley. Vision Bus run formerly Stagecoach services 337 (Chorley-Ormskirk) and 347 (Chorley-Southport) as well as new route 115 linking Chorley to Preston via Leyland, Croston and Longton.
Some independent schools are also present just outside the borough. Most Chorley children go on to attend the nearby Runshaw College in Leyland. Runshaw College had also expanded into the former administration site of ROF Chorley and was using, amongst others, the main administration building. It is no longer using the site.
Lancashire College, based in Chorley, is a part of Lancashire County Council's Lancashire Adult Learning, offering a wide range of courses, a speciality being intensive residential language courses. From 1905 to 1981, the town was home to Chorley Training College (from the 1960s known as Chorley 'Day' Training College), designed by the Victorian and Edwardian architect Henry Cheers, and the town centre building now occupying this site is now Chorley Public Library.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Chorley is home to the semi professional football team, Chorley F.C., known as the Magpies due to their black and white strip. Founded as a rugby team in 1875, they switched to playing football eight years later. Since then they have had limited success, with their most memorable moments being two appearances in the second round of the FA Cup and two seasons in the Football Conference in the late 1980s. They played in the National League in the 2019–20 season having won promotion from the National League North in the previous season, but were relegated back to the National League North. The team qualified for the 4th round of the 2020–21 season of the FA Cup.
The town and surrounding boroughs boast a number of cricket clubs, with two teams taking the town's name. Chorley Cricket Club currently play in the Northern League and were finalists in the ECB National Club Cricket Championship for three consecutive seasons from 1994 to 1996, winning the trophy on the first two occasions. Chorley St James Cricket Club are the second side in the town, competing in the Southport & District Amateur Cricket League, having been members of the Chorley League until its demise in 2005.
The town is home to the Chorley Buccaneers American Football Club. Founded in the year 2000, the Bucs now have eight competitive teams and over 120 players competing in the BAFA National Leagues structure. They are based at Parklands Academy in Chorley.Template:Citation needed
Chorley RUFC was founded in the early 1970s. The club currently run two senior sides and a mini section, the 1st XV playing in the RFU North Lancs 2 division.Template:Cn
Until 2004, Chorley had a rugby league side, Chorley Lynx, who played in League Two of the Rugby League National Leagues. The club was forced to close in 2004, due to small crowds and the withdrawal of funding by backer Trevor Hemmings. Many of the club's players and staff joined nearby Blackpool Panthers. The only rugby league side currently active who are situated in Chorley is amateur side Chorley Panthers.Template:Cn
The council owned leisure centre contains a swimming pool, sports hall, squash courts and a small fitness suite. The borough also includes other gym facilities, two other council-owned leisure centres (at Clayton Green and Coppull) and another public swimming pool at Brinscall. The town is also home to a Next Generation fitness centre, other private pools and leisure centres, and a David Lloyd Tennis Centre.
Duxbury Park municipal golf course is Template:Convert south of Chorley town centre.
The town is home to many amateur football, rugby and cricket teams. There are also several grass football pitches, bowling greens and tennis courts. A public outdoor swimming pool in Astley Park was demolished in the 1990s.Template:Citation needed
Chorley Athletic and Triathlon Club regularly compete in road, cross country, fell, athletics and triathlon events. Chorley Cycling Club was formed in 2011, resurrecting a club which had disbanded around 1953. The club caters to both leisure and racing members and runs regular training and social rides on local roads.<ref>[1]Template:Webarchive</ref> Chorley JKS Shotokan Karate Club was established in the town in 2012.
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