From the family home at Ridgmont, the Ridgways chaired many local bodies for the benefit of the community. They built Holy Trinity Parish Church and School and helped with the provision of workers' housing. The latter was through the lease of Chapel Field on which employees who joined a building club were allowed to build their own houses. The streets running off Church Street are still known as the Club houses. Wallsuches Bleachworks closed in 1933 but the site is still in industrial use.
Plans are under consideration to redevelop the area for hotel and leisure use.
There were coal mines in the area mentioned in the 16th century documents, with many more developing in the 19th century. As well as coal, seams of dry clay were drawn and supplied works making bricks, and sanitary ware. Crankshaw's pipeworks, whose mine was known as Klondyke, closed down in 1961. A new housing development now stands on the site, Montcliffe Colliery closed in 1966, but there are still two large stone quarries to the north of the town. 1884 signalled the most momentous event in Horwich's industrial history, with the decision of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company to build the locomotive works.