The Stamford and Essendine Railway was built to connect Stamford, Lincolnshire, in England, to the nearby Great Northern Railway. It was a short line, and it opened in 1856. It was not commercially successful, and the directors sought a means of connecting Stamford directly to Peterborough. This was the Sibson Extension, opened from Stamford to Wansford in 1867, but the junction there did not facilitate through running to Peterborough, and the Sibson Extension was even less successful than the first line. It was closed in 1929.
The company had a separate Stamford station from the Midland Railway's through station, and after nationalisation the Essendine trains ran into the MR station, from 1957. Nevertheless the Essendine line was greatly loss-making and the passenger service closed in 1959, followed by the complete closure of the line in 1963..