The station opened with the inauguration of the Midland Railway's main line between Chesterfield and Sheffield on 1 February 1870.

On 22 November 1876 an overnight passenger train from London St Pancras to Scotland via Carlisle derailed at Heeley due to a track defect,[3] causing several people to be injured.

[4] Initially the station had two platforms but this was increased to four when the line from Sheffield to Dore was widened between 1901 and 1903.

During the Great Sheffield Gale in 1962, there was a near miss at the station as a London to Sheffield express train narrowly avoided crashing into debris blown onto the tracks by the devastating storm;[6] the station itself suffered damage which was never fully repaired.

In July 2017, it was proposed by Local Enterprise Partnership that new stations should be built at Millhouses and Heeley as well as new platforms at Dore & Totley.