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CHORLEY FOOTBALL CLUB was originally
founded as a rugby club in 1875 but switched to association football
in 1883. After a series of prestigious friendly matches against the
likes of Preston North End, Wigan and Blackburn Rovers, The
Magpies joined the Lancashire Junior League in season 1889/90.
Since those early days the Magpies, as Chorley are nicknamed from
their long-standing colours of black and white stripes, have played
at four different venues, but have been at Victory Park now for over
80 years.
The original home of Chorley was right in the centre of the town on
Dole Lane. In 1901 the club moved to the Rangletts Recreation
Ground, which was next to the site of an old ash tip.
Four years later the now nomadic Magpies were again in the move,
this time to St George's Park, the then home of now long-defunct
town rivals Chorley St. George’s.
The final move came when the club purchased the land of the old ash
tip next to their former Rangletts home in 1919 for the princely sum
of £868 and named it Victory Park to commemorate the end of the
First World War. After some preparation work on the site the ground
was opened in 1920.
Disaster struck the club in November 1945 when the wooden main stand
was destroyed by fire shortly after a crowd of over 4,000 had
watched the Magpies beat Football League club Accrington Stanley in
the first leg of an FA Cup first-round tie.
