Rowsley railway station was opened in 1849 by the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway to serve the village of Rowsley in Derbyshire.

The original plan for the line was to meet the proposed Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway at Ambergate to provide a route from Manchester to the East Coast. The Midland Railway bought shares in the line as it saw an opportunity to run through trains to London. The Manchester and Birmingham Railway, which would provide access from Stockport to Manchester over its own line, supported the project for the same reason. However in 1846 it merged into the new London and North Western Railway which was opposed to any competition into London.

The station however had a busy trade with some sixty or seventy thousand visitors to Chatsworth House each year.^[2]

The stalemate lasted until 1862 when the Midland realigned the track and moved the station as it extended the line into Buxton. The original station building, which had been designed by Joseph Paxton, was used as a goods office until closure in 1967. It still exists within a shopping centre.

The new station was particularly grand, with large first- and third-class facilities and, unusually, in 1891, a subway between the platforms to cater for dignitaries visiting the Duke of Devonshire.^[3]

Finally in 1867 the line reached Manchester and became part of one of the Midland's most prized assets. Besides the London expresses, some of which called at the station, there was substantial goods traffic. This included limestone southwards from the Peak District and, in particular, coal northward from the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield.

Northwards from Rowsley, the line climbed over 600 feet in fourteen miles to its summit at Peak Forest with punishing gradients. A large Motive Power Depot and marshalling yard was opened in 1877 to provide banking engines and to split trains as necessary. This was not so much due to the lack of powerful engines, but because of the need to limit the strain on wagon couplings. Thus, in theory, a class 8F locomotive could haul 37 wagons, but a banker would still have to be provided.^[4] Moreover account had to be taken of the braking capacity on the downhill stretch towards Chinley, such that larger engines were no more capable than the ubiquitous "4Fs".

The Midland Railway became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923.

In June 1933 Express Dairies were granted a 99 year lease on approx 2,538 square yards (2,122 m²) of railway land, on which to build a creamery. The company were also granted dedicated use of one of the five newly created sidings. Express but a facility that included a milk cooling depot, spray, pond condenser and filter plant. Milk Tank Wagons were normally attached to the 5.18pm local to Derby for Cricklewood, or the 10.15pm express freight to Brent. In the 12 months to the end of May 1934, the LMS noted that the carriage value of milk forwarded from Rowsley was £16,886.^[5]

The station closed in 1967, the line closing the following year, and subsequently the track was removed.. The line has been reopened in stages from Matlock by Peak Rail as a heritage railway reaching to its present terminus at a new station at Rowsley South in 1997. There are plans to rebuild the line from Rowsley South through Rowsley station to Bakewell and beyond.