The station was opened on 2 January 1893 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (later part of the Great Central Railway and subsequently the LNER), on its line from Beighton in the outskirts of Sheffield to Annesley in Nottinghamshire, which later became part of the Great Central main line to London.

Along much of the route between Sheffield and Nottingham the line ran through a mainly industrial landscape dominated by mining.

The collieries also closed around this time, although coal mining continued to be a source of employment for the village until the 1980s.

The route of the Great Central line was redeveloped by Derbyshire County Council in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and now forms part of the Five Pits Trail network.

The trail runs approximately 12 miles, from Tibshelf to Grassmoor Country Park, though with the filling in of cuttings and removal of embankments it is virtually unrecognisable as a former railway line.