India Mill was built three years after Joshua Hoyles death in 1862 by that time his two youngest sons Isaac and Edward had taken over the running of the business and the firm was named Joshua Hoyle & Sons built of local stone the preparation department stood four storeys high and had a hopper type roof clad with blue slate. Up until the building of India Mill the main offices for the Joshua Hoyle Company had been further up the road at Plantation Mill. In 1854 Isaac Hoyle moved to Manchester to take charge of the firms business. Edward Hoyle stayed behind in Bacup to take charge of the local mills. It is said the both Isaac and Edward took a keen interest in the welfare of the people who worked for them in their mills. In October 1873 the workforce employed in the Hoyles mills were given the opportunity to buy shares in the company. During November of 1875 Joshua Hoyle & Sons imported labour from other counties such as Norfolk. Fifty families who had once worked as farm labourers moved to Bacup to work in the Hoyle mills at Bacup and Sharneyford. Arriving at Bacup station the families were conveyed to the homes and houses provided by the firm. Joshua Hoyle & Sons became a public limited company in November 1917. The company continued to grow and diversify and in 1943 a canteen was opened for employees at India Mill erected on a site previously occupied by a part of Springholme Mill which had been destroyed by fire in 1937.

The canteen could seat 256 diners and served meat and veg at 9d with a pudding 3d and tea for 1d. During the war  India mill made cloths such as ducks and drills and finer fabrics used for parachutes and barrage balloons. In 1962 it was announced that India mill would close by the year end, the closure affecting 250 people at India mill alone. Bacup Borough Council issued a compulsory purchase order in 1971 for India Mill and by 1972 the site had been cleared.

1973 saw a new building on the site that of E. Sutton & Sons River Side.