The station was opened by the Midland Railway in July 1897 and was at one time known as Elsecar & Hoyland.

CCTV was recently installed for the purposes of crime prevention.

A new 85-bay car park at the station was opened in November 2013 - funded by South Yorkshire PTE, this cost £500,000 and is located behind the northbound platform.

Standard waiting shelters are provided on each side, along with a customer help point on platform 1.

Ticket machines were installed on each platform in 2018, however these are currently out of use as of May 2021 due to vandalism.