The Banbury & Cheltenham Direct Railway opened in stages between 1855 and 1887. The section around Hook Norton was the last to be constructed, costing the lives of nine men. It included two substantial iron viaducts as well as a 418-yard tunnel.

Hook Norton No.1 Viaduct comprised seven girder spans at a height of 60 feet which carried the line for 188 yards. A little further south was the larger No.2 viaduct, 296 yards in length with eight spans perched 85 feet above the valley floor.

The single bore Hook Norton Tunnel is often goes by the name of Swerford Park, a village slightly closer to it.

A landslide bought traffic to a premature halt on the section between Rollright and Hook Norton on the 30th September 1958. It never started up again.