There does not seem to be a cohesive entity called Chorlton prior to the establishmentof the Chapel  Even then the disparate parts such as Martledge continued to have an identity until the mass housing boom following the construction of Wilbraham Road and then the railway  Settlement in river valleys made use of the flooded areas for crop growth  risky but worth it  The surrounding forests would have provide adequate game  The marshiness of the area may well have followed on from the deforestation by farmers  The dearth of early material does lead to speculative entries such as in this article but the chapel would have been established in Chorlton to fulfil a need so some population would have existed in a cohesive manner in the area