Helmshore owes its development to a damp climate that was ideally suited to the development of the Wool, Cotton and Linen Industries. The development of the village began in the 1790's.The cottage Industry gave way to a centralisation of the labour force, small mills were built on the river valleys, such as Alden valley . By the latter half of the nineteenth century these mills became redundant and industry expanded enormously as mill owners such as the Turner family built terraced dwellings to house the workforce necessary to run their cotton mills close to the roads and railways.
Helmshore became a home for the local Mill workers. The village became an extensive area of woollen and cotton mills and associated workers’ housing built along the valley of the River Ogden. The Turner family, whose tan pits and Hollin Bank mills were built as water-powered mills in the early nineteenth century, first established the settlement. The surviving mills later converted to cotton production. The area expanded with the opening of the railway in 1848, and includes the Station Hotel and St Thomas’s Church (1851/2).
William Turner was responsible for much of the development in the area, ironically he was a much despised figure by the local work force. As a local magistrate he used his powers to imprison workers for'shoddy' workmanship.
During the 1826 Cotton Riots the Middle Mill had 106 looms destroyed by the rioters, subsequently some 23 of the rioters were arrested by the Queen's Bays. Whilst under guard the rioters were freed when a further mob numbering in their hundreds besieged the New Inn at Haslingden.
