Dobcross was the commercial and social heart of the district until the 1850s, when Uppermill's influence began to grow. It remains one of the most attractive villages in the whole of the Pennines with numerous weavers' cottages, clothiers' and merchants' houses and a village square virtually unchanged in 200 years. Dobcross was used as the setting for the film 'Yanks' and is the birthplace of the giant Platt Brothers textile machinery business, which in the second half of the 19th century, was the largest machine-making firm in the world.