The station was one of the standard island platform design typical of the London Extension, and here it was the more common "cutting" type reached from a roadway (the Banbury to Daventry road, now classified A361, formerly the B4036), that crossed the line.

[4] In 1917 the Park Gate Iron and Steel Company, based at Parkgate near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, opened an ironstone quarry 0.5 miles (800 m) south of the nearby village of Hellidon, and had a 1.5-mile (2 km) standard gauge mineral railway built to bring the stone to the main line.

[citation needed] At its peak Charwelton goods yard was busy with up to 200 wagons stabled in its sidings at any one time.

[6][7] A steam locomotive called Charwelton was built for the line in 1917, worked it until 1942, and is now preserved on the Kent and East Sussex Railway.

This became something of a traffic hazard owing to its steep approaches, a sharp kink in the road at the apex on the west side, and poor visibility.