Until recent times Milnsbridge was mostly centred on the woollen and worsted yarn textile industry, with mills situated along the riverside.

In the late 19th century Joseph Crowther and two of his sons moved from Marsden, West Yorkshire down the Colne Valley to Milnsbridge after purchasing two mills, where they began the successful production of woollen cloth.

[1] Union Mills, formerly home to John Crowther and Sons, is a mid-19th-century Grade II listed building.

Jack Ramsay in his book "Made in Huddersfield" describes Milnsbridge in 1989: ...for my own beliefs about the devastation and subsequent run-down feel of Milnsbridge are rooted in the very substance of the town's visual character, which is seen as being especially gloomy in the eyes of many local residents because the place is situated in the belly of the [Colne] valley and which has the psychological effect of making it appear somewhere rather morbid and inaccessible like a steelworks crowding the bottom of a hillside city.Arthur Quarmby & Son, at Britannia Mills, manufactures pub-related items such as beer mats, mirrors and clocks.

At the centre of Milnsbridge is the Baptist Chapel, a Grade II listed building founded in 1843,[6] but rebuilt in 2004.