It is 68 miles 66 chains (110.8 km) down the line from London Victoria, situated between Adisham and Snowdown.

It was built by the Southern Railway and opened on 1 July 1928 to cater for the considerable increase in passenger traffic brought about by the development of the Kent coalfield.

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Rail.

The station booking office is staffed on Mondays to Saturdays mornings and a self-service ticket machine is located on the London-bound platform.

All services at Aylesham are operated by Southeastern using Class 375 electric multiple units.