construction of the hd&r was first authorised by an act of parliament obtained on 1 june 1832 which granted the railway company powers to construct a 14 mile railway from moorsley (near houghton-le-spring) to hartlepool as well as a number of short branches to serve collieries surrounding the line and a further act of 16 june 1834 authorised an additional branch to gilesgate in the city of durham. however competition from other railway companies (most notably the durham & sunderland railway (d&sr)) diverted much of the traffic that the company had been intending to access along other routes thus meaning that the h&dr only reached as far as and most of its branches were either cut short or left unbuilt. nonetheless, the curtailed line opened (as far as haswell) on 23 november 1835. passenger services were operated over the line but no station was initially provided at wellfield: the two nearest stations at the time were , to the north, and , to the south east.