Cotton mills were established alongside a small canal (goit) taking water from the Wharfe in the 1790s and this led to the development of an industrial village in the nineteenth century. In the 1830s nearly 400 operatives worked in these mills. Later after William Fison and William Edward Forster took over ownership of Greenholme Mills in 1850, the mills were extended and worsted yarn and cloth became the main products. There was employment for over 700 workers in the later nineteenth century, when the population reached 3,000.

Smaller textile mills were also established at Woodhead, but employment was limited and all except for the Bleach Mill failed long before the end of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century the textile industry suffered from reduction in markets and investment.  By the mid-1960s all local mills were disused.
Much of the village character derives from the early settlement and its development in the 19th century, which established the streets, and buildings that lie within the Conservation Area.

Transport was improved in the mid–nineteenth century when two companies built railways through Wharfedale. Apart from helping the movement of goods in and out of the village, they began to attract commuters to live in Burley while holding jobs in the West Riding conurbation.

Regular bus services through the village in the twentieth century and the decline of employment in the mills turned the village into a dormitory.