It was located immediately to the south of the bridge carrying the Hartlepool to Sedgefield road (now part of the A689) and served little more than a few scattered hamlets, including Embleton and Swainston.
[1] The NER gained parliamentary powers to construct a line from Bowesfield Junction (where it joined the route of Stockton & Darlington Railway) to Wellfield Junction (on the route of the Hartlepool Dock & Railway) in 1872 and opened the line in stages, with the section north of Carlton Junction (where the line crossed the route of the Clarence Railway) opening to freight traffic on 1 August 1878 from which point Wynyard station was used for local goods traffic.
Local passenger trains were eventually introduced on 1 March 1880 though these services only ever used the line north of Carlton junction from where they continued over the former Clarence Railway route to Stockton-on-Tees station.
During the Second World War, the station was used as the disembarking point for wounded soldiers travelling to the emergency military hospital in Sedgefield to recover from their injuries.
[1] After the war, the northbound track was, on several occasions, used to store surplus wagons, making the line only passable to southbound trains.