Chorley - Economy

Economy

The first signs of industry as with many towns in Lancashire was mining, evidence of which can be seen by the various abandoned quarries on the outskirts of the town. One of the most beautiful of these is Anglezarke Quarry, found between Chorley and Horwich. A lot of remnants can be found of mining including the old railway bridge belonging to the Duxbury Mine on Wigan Lane, eventually the mining industry was surpassed by cotton mills which litter the town scape with Chimneys (one of the few remaining examples in the one that stands at the town's Morrisons).

Another industry in Chorley has been the manufacture of trucks which it inherited from Chorley's neighbouring town of Leyland. The large factory on Pilling Lane was used heavily for the production of trucks and during the Second World War' military trucks and tanks. The factory eventually went on to spares manufacture up until the collapse of Leyland DAF in the 1990s. The works emerged as a central parts depot for the Multipart firm which eventually would come part of the RAC. The plant was closed in 2006 and work was moved to a new smaller site on Buckshaw Village. The Pilling Lane site has now been demolished to make way for new homes.

Another major industry was the manufacture of ammunition and armaments. During the 1930s one of Britain's biggest such factories to build these products was built at Euxton. The site known as ROF Chorley was vital in the Second World War and during that time over 40,000 people worked at the site. It is also the site where the bouncing bomb was built. The Nazis tried to bomb the site but could not find it as the roofs at the time were painted green, matching the surrounding grass-lands and making it very hard to spot from a plane. After World War II, production was reduced, and the final part of the site was closed in 2008 by BAE Systems. A large part of the site has been redeveloped for residential and industrial use as Buckshaw Village.

Leyland Trucks and BAE Systems are the Central Lancashire area's largest employers at their sites in Leyland and Samlesbury respectively.

Companies with a presence in the borough are:

  • BAE Systems
  • The Chorley Group
  • Telent
  • FedEx, North West depot located in the town
  • CSC, two locations, one in Euxton and the other in Clayton-le-Woods, north of Chorley
  • Multipart Solutions Limited, successor to the parts arm of the Leyland DAF
  • Porter Lancastrian is a distinguished manufacturer of beer pumps, under the Porta brand.

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    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

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