Waiting shelters, timetable posters and digital CIS displays are provided on each platform, with automated announcements also offered to give train running information.

The station was opened on 1 July 1840 and formed part of the original North Midland Railway from Derby to Leeds built by George Stephenson.

[3] During the early 20th century, coal trains from the nearby Water Haigh colliery provided regular goods traffic, as did the Armitage Quarries and Bentley's Yorkshire Brewery which had their own sidings.

For much of its life, the station had a Midland Railway building on the northbound platform that housed the booking hall, waiting room and station master's office, along with a signal box (dating from 1899) at the end of the southbound platform.

Both were demolished in the early 1970s - the former in 1971 (after the station had been downgraded to an unmanned halt the previous year) and the latter after its abolition in January 1972.