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Chorley, Lancashire

Google Map of Chorley http://goo.gl/maps/zdO93

District and borough, county of Lancashire, England. It lies on the northwest periphery of the Greater Manchester metropolitan area.

The west of the borough is part of the rich agricultural Lancashire Plain, and in the east the land rises to the Pennine moorlands. Cotton weaving and calico printing are still the chief industries, and machinery for the mills has been manufactured locally since 1866. Other industries include motor engineering

(British Leyland), paint manufacturing, and rubber. The town of Chorley and surrounding parishes are within the designated new town of Central Lancashire, which aims to enhance the local environment, especially by improving housing and transport. Astley Hall, an Elizabethan mansion set in parkland, was presented to the borough as a World War I memorial. Chorley was incorporated in 1881.

Area 78 square miles (203 square km). Pop. (1984 est.) town, 35,104; (1991 prelim.) district, 96,500.