The Municipal Borough of Chorley was a local government district in the administrative county of Lancashire, England, with municipal borough status and coterminate with the town of Chorley.

History Lying within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire since the early 12th century, Chorley was originally a township in the ancient parish of Croston until 1793 when it became a civil and ecclesiastical parish in its own right. Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, Chorley joined with other townships (or civil parishes) in the area to become head of the Chorley Poor Law Union on 26 January 1837 which took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law within that Union area.

Although Chorley had been an independent civil parish since 1793, the old-fashioned government by a chief and deputy parish constables, with assistants, continued until 1853, when a Board of Improvement Commissioners was formed. Ten years later, the Commissioners held a meeting on 29 October 1863 and they duly adopted portions of the Public Health Act 1848 and the Local Government Act 1858.

In 1881, under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, a charter of incorporation was obtained for the town. The Municipal Borough of Chorley was governed by a mayor and council of eight aldermen and twenty-four councillors, chosen equally from four wards — North, East, South and West. The borough's population remained roughly static in the 20th century, with the 1911 census showing 30,315 people and the 1961 census showing 31,315. It was enlarged by gaining from parts of the civil parishes of Duxbury, Euxton and Heath Charnock in 1934.

Under the Local Government Act 1972, the municipal borough was abolished on 1 April 1974 and its former area became the core of the larger non-metropolitan Borough of Chorley.

Demography

List of mayors The following is a list of mayors of the Municipal Borough of Chorley:

1881–1883: Augustus William Smethurst 1883–1884: Thomas Anderton 1884–1885: Thomas Whittle 1885–1886: John Heald 1886–1887: Thomas Forrester 1887–1889: Arthur George Leigh 1889–1891: Sir Henry Fleming Hibbert 1891–1893: John Whittle 1893–1894: James Lawrence 1894–1896: Thomas Howarth 1896–1897: Humphrey Norris Whittle 1897–1900: Bertram Jackson 1900–1902: George Thomas Brown (1st term) 1902–1904: Henry Bradley 1904–1905: George Thomas Brown (2nd term) 1905–1907: James Sharples 1907–1909: James Winder Stone 1909–1911: Henry William Hitchen 1911–1912: Alban Jolly 1912–1913: William Henry Killick 1913–1915: Ralph Hindle 1915–1917: James Turner 1917–1920: Lewis Wilson 1920–1922: John Fearnhead 1922–1924: John Sharples (1st term) 1924–1925: John Karfoot 1925–1925: John Sharples (2nd term) 1925–1927: Arnold Gillett (1st term) 1927–1930: Ernest Ashton 1930–1931: Arnold Gillett (2nd term) 1931–1933: Bertha Maud Gillett 1933–1935: Peter Henry Hodgkinson 1935–1936: William Wilcock (1st term) 1936–1939: Ralph Gent 1939–1942: Tom Hamer 1942–1944: Fredric Brindle 1944–1946: John Green 1946–1947: Richard Evans 1947–1949: Ernest Warburton 1949–1950: Samuel Cookson 1950–1951: George Brown Fletcher 1951–1952: Charles Williams 1952–1953: Thomas Heaton 1953–1954: Edith May Edwards 1954–1955: Bertram Harry Gaskell 1955–1956: William Wilcock (2nd term) 1956–1957: Willie Lowe 1957–1958: Thomas Grime 1958–1959: Edith Cunliffe 1959–1960: Constance Monks 1960–1961: Wilfred Rawcliffe MBE JP 1961–1962: George Reginald Rigby 1962–1963: Alic Robert Sheppard 1963–1964: David Dunn 1964–1965: Ian Sellars 1965–1966: Tom Clifton Shorrock 1966–1967: George Frederick Jones 1967–1968: Annie Forshaw 1968–1969: Walter Bleasdale 1969–1970: Adam Barnes 1970–1971: Thomas Rowlandson 1971–1972: Henry Vickers Davies 1972–1973: Dennis Edmund Seabrook 1973–1974: William Wilcock (3rd term)

Notes

External links Boundary Map of Chorley Ch/AP/CP Boundary Map of Chorley MB Boundary Map of Chorley USD