Cotham station was the only intermediate station on the Great Northern Railway Newark to Bottesford spur, which was effectively a northern continuation of the Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway. It opened in 1879. Cotham was served by through services to the joint line, but only one of these remained in 1910 and this had been withdrawn totally by 1922. Although Cotham station itself closed in 1939 occasional passenger services between Nottingham and Newark continued to use the line until 1955. Goods trains still used the line until the 1970s with the track bed finally being lifted in 1985.
Today, the track up to Cotham is a Sustrans cycle route (No 64).
If you stand on the bridge, you can still see an old abandoned goods wagon and the water bowser for steam engines in the distance.