A railway between Crediton and Exeter was authorised as early as 1832. An extension to Barnstaple was proposed but not pursued. In 1844 the broad gauge Bristol & Exeter Railway reached Exeter, and the Exeter & Crediton Railway built a broad gauge line from a junction on this line near Exeter to Crediton where it terminated. However, the London & South Western Railway (LSWR) owned a majority of the shares in the company, and when it was completed in 1847, exercised their right to cancel the proposed opening and convert the line to standard gauge.

The Railway Commission ruled in 1848 that this was illegal, whereupon the LSWR abandoned the scheme and left the lines unused. The Company then leased the line to the Bristol & Exeter who converted it back to broad gauge and opened it as such in 1855. The present station was completed in 1854 as a through station to replace the original small terminus of 1844. The width of the space between the platforms betrays the width of the original track. Although similar in design to Brunel stations esewhere it was actually designed by W.R. Neale. This situation did not last long and following disagreement with the management of the Bristol & Exeter a new lease to the LSWR was signed in 1862. It is one of the oldest surviving stations in the west of England, little altered.

Simultaneously the LSWR had backed the Taw Valley Extension Railway which was authorised in 1845 to run from Crediton to Fremington, beyond Barnstaple. This was opened as far as Barnstaple as a broad gauge line in 1854, and was  converted to mixed gauge in 1862 by the LSWR. Broad gauge working ceased beyond Crediton in 1877, but the Bristol & Exeter and its successor the Great Western had running rights to Crediton and the mixed gauge track survived to that point until 1892 when the broad gauge track was finally lifted everywhere.