They feared, however, that it would interfere with the water supply to the mill and affect both theirs and their employees' livelihood, so initially suggested in 1835 that the line should proceed by Holbrook.

[1] This proved unsatisfactory and, in the 1836 Act authorising the line, the proposed route took it to the east of the Derwent through Milford then to the west past Belper.

This entailed the building of Milford Tunnel and the excavation of a long cutting, at enormous and unexpected expense, with eleven bridges in the space of a mile.

However, this proved so unpopular that the Midland Railway built a new station in 1878 within the cutting, at the town centre, next to King Street.

Originally the station was a stop on the Midland Railway's main line from London St Pancras to Manchester Central, which travelled through the Peak District.

In 2005 the station was refurbished with new shelters, seats, train indicators and rubbish bins by a consortium of local volunteers, work experience trainees provided by The Groundwork Trust and the local councils, with the active support of Network Rail and Central Trains (who managed the station at that time).