The station is on the Leeds to Huddersfield Line, built by the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway which was acquired by the LNWR while the station was still under construction. It was opened in 1848 by the London and North Western Railway and was originally known as Dewsbury Wellington Road.

It is an unexpected sight, being of a style and construction more likely to be found in a rural setting. It is in Tudor style,in ashlar stone with mullioned windows and Jacobean gables. Half has been pulled down but what remains is now an attractive pub. In 1885 an extension was built which forms the current station building. It is a Grade II Listed Building.

Close to the station the railway crosses an eleven arch viaduct, again in stone. This too is a Grade II Listed Building.

Dewsbury had two other railway stations, both now closed. These were the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's Market Place (closed in 1930), and the Great Northern Railway's Central (closed in 1964). Market Place was the first in the town, opened by the Manchester and Leeds Railway in 1840 as the terminus of a short branch from their main line from Wakefield to Manchester Victoria. No trace of Market Place station remains, but the fa§ade of Dewsbury Central station can still be seen as it was incorporated into a bridge supporting the Dewsbury Ring Road in 1985.