diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index 81e1235714..8cdf5ca0dd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ Changelog
  * Page model fields without a FieldPanel are no longer displayed in the form
  * No longer need to specify the base model on InlinePanel definitions
  * The project template Vagrantfile now listens on port 8000
+ * The external link chooser in rich text areas now accepts URLs of the form '/some/local/path', to allow linking to non-Wagtail-controlled URLs within the local site (Eric Drechsel)
 
 
 0.8.5 (xx.xx.20xx)
diff --git a/docs/releases/0.9.rst b/docs/releases/0.9.rst
index e265150aea..2482d718db 100644
--- a/docs/releases/0.9.rst
+++ b/docs/releases/0.9.rst
@@ -23,15 +23,16 @@ Minor features
  * Dropped Python 2.6 and 3.2 support
  * Dropped Elasticsearch 0.90.x support
  * Search view accepts "page" GET parameter in line with pagination
- * Removed the dependency on `LOGIN_URL` and `LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL` settings
+ * Removed the dependency on ``LOGIN_URL`` and ``LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL`` settings
  * Password reset view names namespaced to wagtailadmin
  * Removed the need to add permission check on admin views (now automated)
- * Reversing `django.contrib.auth.admin.login` will no longer lead to Wagtails login view (making it easier to have front end views)
+ * Reversing ``django.contrib.auth.admin.login`` will no longer lead to Wagtails login view (making it easier to have front end views)
  * Added cache-control headers to all admin views. This allows Varnish/Squid/CDN to run on vanilla settings in front of a Wagtail site
  * Added validation to prevent pages being created with only whitespace characters in their title fields
  * Page model fields without a FieldPanel are no longer displayed in the form
  * No longer need to specify the base model on InlinePanel definitions
  * The project template Vagrantfile now listens on port 8000
+ * The external link chooser in rich text areas now accepts URLs of the form '/some/local/path', to allow linking to non-Wagtail-controlled URLs within the local site
 
 
 Bug fixes
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/forms.py b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/forms.py
index f62d7ae319..de07ac01c0 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/forms.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/forms.py
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 from django import forms
+from django.core import validators
+from django.forms.widgets import TextInput
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
 from django.contrib.auth.forms import AuthenticationForm, PasswordResetForm
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
@@ -6,6 +8,25 @@ from django.utils.translation import ungettext, ugettext_lazy
 from wagtail.wagtailadmin.widgets import AdminPageChooser
 from wagtail.wagtailcore.models import Page
 
+class URLOrAbsolutePathValidator(validators.URLValidator):
+    @staticmethod
+    def is_absolute_path(value):
+        return value.startswith('/')
+
+    def __call__(self, value):
+        if URLOrAbsolutePathValidator.is_absolute_path(value):
+            return None
+        else:
+            return super(URLOrAbsolutePathValidator, self).__call__(value)
+
+class URLOrAbsolutePathField(forms.URLField):
+    widget = TextInput
+    default_validators = [URLOrAbsolutePathValidator()]
+
+    def to_python(self, value):
+        if not URLOrAbsolutePathValidator.is_absolute_path(value):
+            value = super(URLOrAbsolutePathField, self).to_python(value)
+        return value
 
 class SearchForm(forms.Form):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -22,11 +43,11 @@ class SearchForm(forms.Form):
 
 
 class ExternalLinkChooserForm(forms.Form):
-    url = forms.URLField(required=True)
+    url = URLOrAbsolutePathField(required=True)
 
 
 class ExternalLinkChooserWithLinkTextForm(forms.Form):
-    url = forms.URLField(required=True)
+    url = URLOrAbsolutePathField(required=True)
     link_text = forms.CharField(required=True)
 
 
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_page_chooser.py b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_page_chooser.py
index 475e4f7b19..834acde8cf 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_page_chooser.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_page_chooser.py
@@ -101,9 +101,24 @@ class TestChooserExternalLink(TestCase, WagtailTestUtils):
         self.assertEqual(self.get({'prompt_for_link_text': 'foo'}).status_code, 200)
 
     def test_create_link(self):
-        request = self.post({'url': 'http://www.example.com'})
-        self.assertContains(request, "'url': 'http://www.example.com/',")
-        self.assertContains(request, "'title': 'http://www.example.com/'")
+        response = self.post({'url': 'http://www.example.com'})
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertContains(response, "'onload'")  # indicates success / post back to calling page
+        self.assertContains(response, "'url': 'http://www.example.com/',")
+        self.assertContains(response, "'title': 'http://www.example.com/'")
+
+    def test_invalid_url(self):
+        response = self.post({'url': 'ntp://www.example.com'})
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertContains(response, "'html'")  # indicates failure / show error message
+        self.assertContains(response, "Enter a valid URL.")
+
+    def test_allow_local_url(self):
+        response = self.post({'url': '/admin/'})
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertContains(response, "'onload'")  # indicates success / post back to calling page
+        self.assertContains(response, "'url': '/admin/',")
+        self.assertContains(response, "'title': '/admin/'")
 
 
 class TestChooserEmailLink(TestCase, WagtailTestUtils):