[11] The station, which eventually took its name from the village of Swanbourne over a mile away,[9] was in an isolated and rural location with no habitations in the immediate locality,[9][12] a situation which endured until at least 1925.

[9][15] In its heyday, Swanbourne was the railhead for six local coal merchants and farmers from ten local villages, with healthy livestock, hay, corn and wool traffic flows, as well as butter produced from the herd of pedigree jersey cows kept at Horwood House which was dispatched in special containers of slate and stone to London for Queen Victoria and her household.

[16][15][17] The butter was sent via a daily milk train which departed Swanbourne each morning at 0830 also carrying supplies brought to the station by cart from local farms.

[20] A small goods yard was served by a single siding trailing off from the Down line which was controlled by the ground frame operated by Annett's key.

[21] In the wake of the abandonment of a plan to develop the Varsity Line as a freight link from the East Coast ports to South Wales, including a marshalling yard near Swanbourne (see below), the station was listed for closure in the Beeching report[22] which called for the closure of all minor stations on the line.

Wartime relief sidings for Bletchley were constructed at the 3 milepost,[26][27] between Weasel Lane and Whaddon Road at grid reference SP830317.

[30][31][32][29] Empty wagons departed for Toton or Overseal, coal went to Sandy and Corby Steelworks, and bricks came from Newton Longville and Lambs Siding to be attached to a London train.

[29][33] The box survived the closure of the sidings in March 1967 and remained to control the scissor points system which enabled trains to change track;[34] it was taken out of service on 29 July 1984.

[40] Swanbourne was one of seven proposed sites on green field land, the others being Carlisle Kingmoor, Perth, Edinburgh Millerhill, Margam, Brookthorpe and Walcot.

[41] In September 1958, work started on the upgrade of the Varsity Line with the construction of the Bletchley Flyover to separate local and long-distance traffic.

[50] The owner had cut the hedge surrounding the buildings into the form of a locomotive; this has attracted much publicity including a photograph in the Daily Telegraph.