It was built by the nominally independent Eastern Union and Hadleigh Junction Railway company and opened in 1847.

This was a prodigious project, and in fact the actual cost greatly overran, so that all the money was spent and the railway only reached Colchester.

When the ECR reappraised its plans, it proposed to build from Colchester to Bury St Edmunds through Hadleigh, putting Ipswich on a branch from the town, but this scheme came to nothing.

[2][3][4] Nevertheless the EU&HJR directors now considered that an extension of their line to Lavenham, an important town in the wool industry, was desirable, and they put in hand the necessary measures to secure parliamentary authorisation for that.

In fact the EUR was, at the same time, encouraging the Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury and Halstead Railway, which had just received its authorising Act.

The Lavenham extension would conflict with the strategic objectives of the EUR, and they asked the EU&HJR to defer their proposal.

Simmons report noted that the junction at Bentley was a triangle so that trains from Ipswich could run direct to the branch.

[2] In 1848 two direct services to Ipswich were included in the schedule each weekday, but the northern section of the triangular junction to the main line was closed in 1875.

[7] While little changed in the pattern of working on the branch, passenger and goods usage gradually declined in the twentieth century.

The East Suffolk Rail Tour took place on 15 September 1962[8] between London Liverpool Street and Felixstowe, stopping at Bentley and Hadleigh on its journey.

The goods facilities at Capel and Raydon Wood were used extensively during World War II, handling supplies for a nearby United States Army Air Forces base.