In 1784 John Cockshott and John Cunliffe became the assignee's in a bankruptcy of an estate at West Hall, this gave them the opportunity use water power of the river. In 1787 a small piece of land was purchased from Isaac Robinson with permission to erect a dam. Isaac Robinson's house is still at the end of the Low Mill development. Cockshott and Cunliffe intended to build a cotton mill, on its completion in 1787 instead of spinning cotton on the water frames they experimented with wool to produce a worsted yarn. This was the worlds first commercially viable factory produced worsted yarn.  

The mill by the river became known as the Old End or Low Mill.In 1793 John Cockshott became bankrupt, this left John Cunliffe financially embarrassed, he was bailed out by his relation Nicolas Cunliffe who in turn sold his shares to Thomas Gill. In 1802 the Cunliffe family bought out Gill. By 1811 the mill was now owned by J. Cunliffe and Sons,  the mill and hamlet had increased to 
26 cottages and 40 spinning frames. John Cunliffe died in 1813. His son Ellis lived in Bradford,and his second son William was living the life of a country gentleman at Farfield hall. Thomas Lister Thompson Cunliffe was not of age yet. On the death of William in 1824, Jeremiah Horsfall took out a 20 year lease and came to live at Farfield hall.

In 1826 he was re-equipping the mill with new 
spinning mules, they were being brought from 
Manchester but the shipment was attacked 
by a mob and destroyed. The mob led by 'Gurt 
Bill' of Cowling were men who had been put out 
of work by the new machinery. 
They were called 'Luddites', allegedly named after Ned Ludd a fabled leader from Nottingham, he was, as 
legend told; the carrier of 'Great Enoch', a sledge hammer for smashing machinery. The mob decided to attack the mill that had bought them, In Addingham as the news got through the workers started to prepare to defend the mill, iron grills were placed over the windows, 
stones and firearms were taken to the higher storeys. The mill was put in charge of Timothy Brayshaw who had fought Waterloo who then sent a warning to Greenholme mills at Otley, who in turn called in the Yorkshire Hussars from Leeds. The women of the village put up their shutters and chalked on them "this house "to let" to deceive the rioters.

The defenders were able to hold them off  but the outhouses were ransacked. The next day the attack went on and some of the rioters got into the mill. A Justice of the Peace was needed to read the Riot Act, this was John Ellis Cunliffe now living in Manningham with his second wife Mary Kay. Soldiers were sent from Leeds and local farmers and work people helped to drive 
the attackers away. One of the rioters was suffocated in a tank that was draining a privy. Two other rioters were sent to York jail and later tried and imprisoned. Two defenders also died. The Hussars stayed for a few weeks and the violence died down. 
Horsefall now had the opportunity build a 
new and larger mill, the New End, to the west 
of the Old End. He re-equipped the mill for mule spinning and later brought in power looms 
without protest, the Addingham workforce was content. When the New End was built he added another water wheel, this survived until 1938 when a new turbine was installed. In 1835 
Horsefall added a steam engine of 34 hp. In 1827
Horsefall made a gas works for supplying lighting to the mill and the hamlet of Low Mill, this soon supplied all the other mills and the village of Addingham. In 1841 Horsefall unexpectedly ceased trading explaining a drop in population.

In 1842 William Threlfall and William Seed took out a 21 year lease and continued spinning cotton for nine years. In 1859 they went bankrupt, and the mill ceased working again. In 1850 the owners of Low Mill were the brothers and sisters of the Cunliffe - Listers. Samuel Cunliffe-Lister took over the lease, Samuel who had already persuaded his father to build a mill in Manningham was a very inventive young man, he had identified combing as being the major bottleneck in worsted yarn production. In 1851 he achieved success by carding the wool before combing it with his machine which he patented [see Bradford Industrial Museum]. Samuel after taking over Low Mill continued cotton spinning. In 1855 he took on a new project with a partner called Warburton trying to comb silk, he was initially unsuccessful and after time Warburton withdrew from the project by selling his 20 percent to Samuel Cunliffe - Lister.  By the late 1860's the process was improved to become economically viable. Up until 1870 the weaving of velvets was by hand. Again in 1878, Samuel and his partner Reixach perfected and patented a power loom [cut pile] for weaving velvets. These inventions had a dramatic effect on employment, of the 120 hand combers in 1851 only 13 remained in 1861. In 1894 the 55 velvet cutters were employed at Low Mill this dwindled sharply as the effectiveness of the machines were improved. In 1871 the Lister household moved from Bradford to Farfield Hall and donated Lister Park and its mansion to Bradford. By the turn-of-the-century Listers owned five mill in Addingham, and the operations at Low Mill carried on spinning and weaving velvets. Samuel Cunliffe-Lister left Farield Hall and moved to Swinton Castle at Masham, he died in 1906 at the age of 91, he is interred in the Cunliffe-Lister vault at St. Peters.

During the First World War Low Mill produced cordite silk.  Listers diversefied into Botany Wools and in 1926 a 3 storey mill was built at Low Mill, later Listers entered into a partnership with the Peltzers of Crefeldt Germany weaving velvet in the UK to avoid tariffs, when the Second World War broke out the German workers were interned on the Isle of Man. In 1941 the S.U. carburettor factory was bombed in Coventry, production of the carburettor's was switched to Addingham at the  Low Mill factory. Up to 1000 people worked there and a number of prefabricated houses were erected in Ilkley to house them. The other textile factories were busy during the war with Listers expertise in silk they made such things as parachute silk etc. After war carburettor production ceased and Low Mill returned to textiles, Textiles in Britain never really recovered after the Second World War.  After an initial busy period when re-equipment should have taken place the economics of having outdated equipment as against modern foreign competition, began to have an effect. Spinning ceased at Low Mill in 1967 and all other operations in 1976. The houses and Old End at Low Mill were modernised and converted into luxury cottages in the 1980's.  In 1998/99 Textiles returned to Low Mill in the form of a 'State of the Art' wool scouring plant owned by a Norwegian company Straume, but this will shortly be closing.

The new water gauging weir, a good spot for fly fishing. This section is managed by Bradford Angling club

Modernised mill cottages on the right and a converted spinning mill on the left. this was renovated between 1984 - 1988

The end of the old spining mill see old photograph shows a footbridge into this from main mill which has now been demolished

This all thats left of the original mill the 3 storey unit built in the 1920,s and the Peltzers weaving shed, the 3 storey unit will become offices for Straume. The weaving shed in being demolished for the new factory unit only the stone walls will be left to ensure that it fits in with the surroundings.