Mentioned in the mid-16th century as Coohill and Cohyll, the district's growth during the late 18th and early 19th centuries led to this description in 1826 by local historian James Butterworth -
"Cowhill, with Alder Root, form united a kind of small village with two public houses and a considerable number of cottages".

Twice in the 17th century Chadderton was to see many of its inhabitants die from plague epidemics. The first occurred in 1633 when many deaths were recorded in Cowhill.

Prior to 1810 and the construction of the Middleton to Oldham Turnpike road (Middleton Road) Cowhill and Alder Root formed part of the main route from Chadderton and Oldham to Middleton.

Noted for its coal mining community, it once had several public houses, but only two remain. The Dog Inn was first licensed in 1750, and is Chadderton's oldest licensed premises, a distinction it shares with The Boat and Horses at Whitegate. The Crown (also known locally as The Sump Hole) dates to the early 1870s.

In 1819 The Dog Inn was one of Chadderton's two meeting places for a contingent of townsfolk who marched to Manchester for the iil-fated political demonstration that came to be known as the Peterloo Massacre. John Ashton of Cowhill was one of the 15 fatalities of that incident.
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The mid 19th century saw the construction of the first railway line into Oldham pass through Cowhill. The Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line opened on 31 March 1842 to Oldham Werneth railway station. A second line passed through the area on 17 May 1880 with the opening of the Oldham Loop Line from Manchester. The two lines converged near Alder Root. (See Oldham Loop Line).

Crossley Playing Fields have a varied history and a stream (the Stock Brook), ran through it in the 1840s before becoming culverted. Around this time Stockfield Colliery opended on the south side of the railway line. The colliery was closed in 1932 but the railway remained open until 1949/50 when active tipping was noted on the site. In 1980 the site was completely reinstated using landfill.

Several cotton spinning mills were built during the cotton boom of mid to late 1800's including Alder Root Mill (1860–1883), Chadderton Mill (1885 - still standing), Glenby (1885–1962) and Osborne (1853–1973). See List of mills in Chadderton. The Chadderton Mill is a grade II listed building. The mill ceased production in June 2000, being the last cotton mill in Chadderton to function as such.

On 22 April 1907, the Walsh Street railway bridge was the location of a railway incident that became known as the 'Cow Hill Accident' involving a dozen privately owned wagons drawn by Platt Brothers locomotives. The siding along which the train was running descended steeply towards a stop-block adjacent to Walsh Street. Running out of control, the train continued through the stop-block and crashed, wagon after wagon into the street below.