The first sections of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, those between Bristol and and the branch to , opened on 14 June 1841. The station was first opened in 1860 as "Bourton" roughly half a mile from the village of Flax Bourton in Somerset. Located in a deep cutting by the B3130 road from Bristol to Nailsea, just west of the short tunnel at the summit of the climb from Bristol, it was from the Great Western Railway terminus at Paddington in London and from the B&E's northern terminus at Bristol Temple Meads. When it opened it was the first station out of Bristol, taking the claim from , and remained so until opened in 1871. The station was renamed "Flax Bourton" on 1 September 1888.