History of Rose Hill Station
(illustrated with images from the Virtual History Tour of Marple)

The station opened on 2 August 1869 being built on the Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway, with dual tracks and thus two platforms. The second southbound platform (now removed, as the line is operated as a single track 'long siding') had simply a waiting shelter (see photo). The remaining station building previously provided an indoor waiting area and was only recently brought back into use in 2007 with a new ticket window operating weekday mornings.

The station goods yard was situated where the car park is now and was serviced by regular pick up goods trains with mainly coal traffic and in the early years a siding served Tymms's lime works roughly where the refuse tip is now.

The small signal box at the south end of the down platform was of North Staffordshire Railway design. The embankment where the up platform once stood was at one time well tended with flowerbeds, rose bushes and trellising, now sadly all swept away.

On 5th January 1970, the route south to Bollington and Macclesfield closed to all traffic, the majority of travellers between Macclesfield and the City of Manchester preferring to use the faster West Coast Main Line route via Stockport instead. Rose Hill itself avoided a similar fate due to its high levels of commuter traffic toward Manchester Piccadilly. The track was lifted the following year and the trackbed to Macclesfield turned into a "linear park", which opened on 30th May 1985, as a trail used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Subsequent diesel services to and from Manchester Piccadilly originally alternated between the two available routes - one train running via Bredbury, followed by a train travelling via Hyde and Guide Bridge. In the late 1990s, the services to the two railway stations in Marple were streamlined, with most Rose Hill services now running via Hyde and most Marple services running via the more direct Bredbury line.

From 13th December 2010, Rose Hill Marple gained an extra second service per hour off-peak thanks to the diversion of a service which previously turned back at Marple railway station.

Annual rail passenger usage has increased from 70,700 in 2004/05 to 98,000 in 2009/10 (Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Rose Hill Marple from Office of Rail Regulation statistics).