The Municipal Borough of Chorley was a local government district in the

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, England, with

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

status and coterminate with the town of Chorley.

History

Lying within the boundaries of the historic county of

since the early 12th century, Chorley was originally a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

in the ancient parish of

Croston Croston is a village and civil parish near Chorley in Lancashire, England. The River Yarrow flows through the village. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 2,917. History Croston was founded in the 7th century when ...

until 1793 when it became a

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

and

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

in its own right. Following the

Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relie ...

, Chorley joined with other

s (or

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

es) 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 constable A parish constable, also known as a petty constable, was a law enforcement officer, usually unpaid and part-time, serving a parish. The position evolved from the ancient '' chief pledge'' of a ''tithing'', and takes its name from the office of ''con ...

s, with assistants, continued until 1853, when a Board of

Improvement Commissioners Boards of improvement commissioners were ''ad hoc'' urban local government boards created during the 18th and 19th centuries in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its predecessors the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ire ...

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 Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environment ...

and the

Local Government Act 1858 Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environmenta ...

. 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 In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

and council of eight

aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members the ...

and twenty-four

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s, 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 A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

showing 30,315 people and the 1961 census showing 31,315. It was enlarged by gaining from parts of the civil parishes of

Duxbury Duxbury (alternative older spelling: "Duxborough") is a historic seaside town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore approximately to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 at the 20 ...

Euxton Euxton ( ) is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, in Lancashire, England. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 census was 9,993, however, the population is now estimated to be around 14,000 due to the incre ...

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 The Borough of Chorley is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The population of the Borough at the 2011 census was 107,155. It is named after its largest settlement, the town of Chorley. History The non-me ...

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 Gillet (1st term) * 1927–1930: Ernest Ashton * 1930–1931: Arnold Gillet (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 Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

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/CPBoundary Map of Chorley MBBoundary Map of Chorley USD
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chorley Local government in Chorley History of Lancashire Municipal boroughs of England 1881 establishments in England Districts of England abolished by the Local Government Act 1972

Municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...