CHORLEY, a manufacturing town of North Lancashire, England, is situated eight miles south-east of Preston on the River Yarrow and the Leeds Canal, and on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The town, which has a weekly market, is well built and is abundantly supplied with water. It contains an old church in the Norman style with some interesting monuments, and several dissenting chapels. A town-hall has been erected recently at a cost of £30,000. Chorley is the seat of a considerable manufacturing industry. Numerous mills have been erected within and around the town for the manufacture of calico, muslins, jacconets, and fancy goods, while several bleachfields and print works are in the immediate neighbourhood. Rail way-waggon building is extensively carried on. The district contains a number of coal mines and stone quarries. The area of the parish, which forms a local board district, is 3614 acres; the population in 1861 was 15,013, and in 1871 16,864, of whom 7910 were males and 8954 females.