Editing Chorley (section)

===Medieval period===
Chorley was not listed in the ''[[Domesday Book]]'' of 1086, though it is thought to be one of the twelve [[wikt:berewick|berewick]]s in the [[Leyland Hundred]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jim Heyes|title=A History of Chorley|year=1994|publisher=Lancashire County Books}}, p.6</ref>

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">{{cite web |title=Chorley A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol6/pp129-149#h3-s6 |website=British History Online |author=Willam Farrer & J. Brownbill (editors) |publisher=Victoria County History, 1911 |access-date=15 November 2012 }}</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">{{cite book
 | author1 = Lancashire County Council and Egerton Lea Consultancy
 | author2 = English Heritage and Chorley Borough Council
 | title = Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report
 | publisher = Lancashire County Council
 | series = Lancashire Historic Town Survey Programme
 | date = February 2006
 | page = 1
|url=http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/documents/historictowns/ChorleyComplete_LowRes.pdf
 | access-date = 15 November 2012
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120830213449/http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/documents/historictowns/ChorleyComplete_LowRes.pdf
 | archive-date = 30 August 2012
 | url-status = dead
 }}</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 [[Moiety title|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 (artist)|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">{{cite book
 | author1 = Lancashire County Council and Egerton Lea Consultancy
 | author2 = English Heritage and Chorley Borough Council
 | title = Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report
 | publisher = Lancashire County Council
 | series = Lancashire Historic Town Survey Programme
 | date = February 2006
 | page = 14
 | url = http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/documents/historictowns/ChorleyComplete_LowRes.pdf
 | access-date = 15 November 2012
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120830213449/http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/documents/historictowns/ChorleyComplete_LowRes.pdf
 | archive-date = 30 August 2012
 | url-status = dead
 }}</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, Chorley|St Laurence's Church]] is the oldest remaining building in Chorley and first appears in historical records when it was [[Dedication (ritual)|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 [[Lorcán Ua Tuathail|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>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mylesstandish.info/Bones%20of%20ST%20Laurence.htm#Thedocumentaryevidence|title=Sir Rowland Standish Knight and the Holy relic of St. Lawrence.|last=Christopher|first=Tony|website=myslesstandish.info|publisher=Chorley St Laurence Historical Society|at=The 1613 Visitation pedigree given to Richard St. George by Alexander Standish, Lord of the Manor of Duxbury.|access-date=24 April 2016}}</ref> [[Duxbury]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://standish-history.org.uk/battle-agincourt/|title=The Battle of Agincourt|website=Welcome to Standish|publisher=Standish History|access-date=4 April 2016|quote=In 1415 a John de Standysshe is recorded as being present at Agincourt. He was probably the brother of Ralph Standish, who held the Manor between 1396 and 1418. Others Standishes concerned in the French Wars were: Thomas, who fell sick at [[Harfleur]], Sir Hugh and Christopher, both of the Duxbury branch, and Sir Rowland of Duxbury, who with his wife, Dame Jane, brought home to Chorley Parish Church some relics of St. Lawrence. There is an account which relates that Sir Rowland and Hugh Standish, each with six footmen behind him, fought at Agincourt.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140604203851/http://standish-history.org.uk/battle-agincourt/|archive-date=4 June 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> an ancestor of [[Myles Standish]] (an English military officer hired by the [[Pilgrim Fathers|Pilgrims]] as military adviser for their [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth expedition]] to the New World).{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

As happened in many other instances following the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]], these relics went missing in the turmoil of the [[English Reformation]] under the rule of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bolton|first=William|date=31 August 1907|title=Relics of St Lawrence|url=http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/31st-august-1907/20/relics-of-st-lawrence|journal=The Tablet International Catholic News Weekly|access-date=4 April 2016|archive-date=12 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512224158/http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/31st-august-1907/20/relics-of-st-lawrence|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Chorley was granted a market charter by [[Henry VII of England|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 [[Lawrence of Rome|St Lawrence]].<ref name="Chorley: Historic Town Assessment Report1"/>