The line from Shenfield to Wickford, along with the station, were opened for goods on 19 November 1888 and for passengers on 1 January 1889 by the
Great Eastern Railway. The station was previously called
Wickford Junction, when the Crouch Valley route to Southminster also included a branch to and more agricultural traffic passed through the station. At the London end of the station, there once was a goods yard and
turntable for steam locomotives; it was closed in 1954. A couple of sidings remain here for storing engineering vehicles or failed trains, but much of the railway land here is now in use as a car park for passengers. The line from Wickford to Southend Victoria was converted from semaphore signalling to 3-aspect, automatic and semi-automatic, colour light signals on 26 June 1938. At the same time, the signal boxes at Fanton, Rayleigh, and were decommissioned. It was demolished in 2021. The extended platform was opened on 26 June 2021. In September 2025, work started on the construction of a replacement station building, with an estimated completion by autumn 2026. The new building will include a ticket office, toilets, waiting room and platform awnings.
Accidents and incidents • On 24 February 1965, the 10:18 departure from Liverpool Street for Southend Victoria derailed upon departure from Wickford when a set of
points was moved while the train passed over them, causing the rear coaches to be diverted onto the Southminster branch line and be derailed. The incident caused damage to the infrastructure and carriages, and minor injury to two passengers on board the train. • On 31 January 1971, a collision occurred between a newspaper delivery train and the 04:04 passenger service from Southend Victoria, bound for Liverpool Street. Nobody was injured, however two carriages of the passenger train were extensively damaged and some minor damage was caused to the newspaper train. The newspaper train's driver had left his cab to check signals without having applied the brakes, leading to the train slipping back down the gradient of the Southminster branch line, into the Southend train which was stopped on the main line at Wickford. ==Description==