It was created on the original disused full-gauge bed of a defunct passenger service to incorporate a new, adjacent pedestrian footpath.

The ENR started in 1877 when the East Norfolk Railway opened from Norwich to Cromer, with an extension from Wroxham to Aylsham in 1880.

The western extension was planned by Edward Wilson & Co. in 1876, with the line being constructed by William Waddell at a cost of £44,000, initially employing 100 men, 10 horses and 43 waggons.

From September 1960, the line west of Aylsham via Cawston and Reepham, which originally went to the junction at County School Station, instead turned south via a new curve at Themelthorpe to join a fragment of the old Midland and Great Northern system to reach Lenwade and Norwich City.

[6] Consent was given for the rebuilding of the line in 1987, despite local objections and with complaints from residents of Buxton with Lamas initially seeing plans for a restored station in the village dropped.

The Bure Valley Railway opened on 10 July 1990 under the management of RKF Leisure which had purchased the trackbed.

[9] The opening ceremony saw a series of issues, including overloading of the first train, causing it to stall at Coltishall for 30 minutes with defective brakes.

In 1993 Mike Hart sold his interest in Bure Valley Railway (1991) Limited to Robert Baker of Sudbury, Suffolk.

Broadland District Council considered selling the line to the Bure Valley Railway in June 2017, but this was delayed by Brexit, resulting in a partnership approach being made by Norfolk County Council, which it was felt would improve the opportunities for funding and ensure the retention of the permissive footpath alongside the line.

In 2019 Norfolk County Council received £1.2 million Interreg funding to invest in refurbishments along the Bure Valley route.

[14] In June 2020 the local media reported, that the BVR were in "dire straits" and at risk of closure due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the refusal of an insurance claim relating to loss of income, despite Broadland DC deferring their annual £30,000 rent payments until September 2020 and receiving a £25,000 Covid-19 support grant.

[16][17] The railway was able to re-open with volunteers on at weekends from 11 July and 5 days per week from 1 August were all staff came off the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

On Monday 30 May 2011, a train on the line suffered a derailment at Brampton, during which wheels from one of the coaches were reported to have come up through the floor of the vehicle.

[28] The Rail Accident Investigation Branch were called in to conduct a preliminary examination into the incident,[29][30] and found it to have been caused by the failure due to metal fatigue of an axle journal that had been welded several years previously (when the railway was under different management).

There is a hut at Aylsham which sells donated bric-a-brac, second hand books and magazines during the season to raise money to support the railway.