The station at Southwell opened on 1 July 1847 as a branch line from the Nottingham and Lincoln Railway at Rolleston Junction.

[3] In 1871 the line was extended to Mansfield by the contractors Eckersley and Baylis (using cast iron bridges built by Andrew Handyside and Company of Derby).

[2] The Mansfield to Southwell section, which passed through a mining area subject to subsidence, was closed to passengers by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1929,[6] the same year in which a north to south-west curve at Rolleston was opened to give direct access to the Fiskerton direction from the branch.

The westbound trackbed back towards Mansfield forms a shared-use path called the Southwell Trail.

The trackbed immediately to the east is now occupied by housing developments; beyond this, the route of the old railway to Rolleston has become Racecourse Road.