It is 60 miles 66 chains (97.9 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street[1] and is situated between Alresford to the west and Weeley to the east.

In 1859 the Tendring Hundred Railway was formed to extend the branch line from Hythe to Wivenhoe, which opened on 8 May 1863 for both passenger and goods services from Colchester.

Initially the station was served by a single track but the line was doubled between Great Bentley and Thorpe-le-Soken by the GER in 1891.

There was once a small goods yard to the east of the station which had cattle pens, coal wharves and an end loading ramp.

Network Rail replaced the manually-controlled level crossing gates at Great Bentley with barriers in 2008 as part of a £104 million resignalling project between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea.