WORK began on this railway in 1847, starting with the construction of the line from Marks Tey to Sudbury. The operation continued for two years, and was all the more remarkable as it included the building of the viaduct at Chappel, comprising 7 million bricks (cost, £32,000). The line was opened on 7 July 1849 by the owners, the Eastern Counties Railway. Ownership was transferred in 1865 to the Great Eastern Railway.

It was not until 1864 that building of the extension from Sudbury to Cambridge was begun. This section saw a line forged through a rising landscape between Haverhill and Cambridge, and the building of no less than 36 bridges.
 During the remainder of the 19th century the train service between Sudbury and Cambridge consisted of five trains each weekday with a journey time of one hour 22 minutes. No trains ran on Sundays.

The line was merged into the London & North-Eastern Railway in 1923, and between the two world wars additional summer excursion-trains operated to Southend, Walton, Clacton and London, Liverpool Street.

The history of rail-fares shows that at the beginning a 1st class ticket cost 3d per mile; 2nd class, 2d per mile; 3rd class, 1d per mile ! By 1930 a return excursion ticket from Bures to Liverpool street cost 2s.8d (13p in today's currency) !

The Stour Valley railway persisted through the vicissitudes of the world wars, and after 1945 normal services resumed. However, thereafter, road transport mushroomed – both private cars and lorries – with the building of motorways from the 1960s, and 'never had it so good' Britons abandoned holidays 'at home', and began to board cross-channel ferries and aeroplanes to take their vacations abroad. All this diminished traffic on the line, and even Sudbury and Haverhill stations were reduced to unstaffed halts by 1966. Freight services were withdrawn from Sudbury in  the same year.

The precise reasons for closing the line are disputed: was it financially viable or not ?

Sadly, five local councils agreed, after debate, to close the Sudbury to Cambridge section, which occurred on 6 March 1967.