of the Bristol and Exeter Railway's (B&ER) main line opened on 14 June 1841 between Bristol and . "Clevedon Road" (as it was then known) was for a while the second station on the line west of Bristol, the first being Nailsea. The line, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was built as broad-gauge. The platform buildings at Yatton are of Brunel style, and it is widely believed Brunel himself designed the buildings. There were significant goods facilities, with a large goods yard and shed to the south of the station. A hotel was provided adjacent to the eastbound platform for people travelling to Clevedon. The station buildings themselves included a ticket office and station master's office on the eastbound platform. A bookstall was in operation from 1888. Services were initially operated by the Great Western Railway (GWR) on behalf of the Bristol & Exeter. Junction station The station was originally built, as the original name suggests, to serve passengers for Clevedon, who would travel on by road. On 28 July 1847, the B&ER opened a branch line between Yatton and Clevedon, and so renamed Clevedon Road station as Yatton. A bay platform was built on the north side of the station to accommodate branch traffic, with an unusual canopy which covered the entire bay, as well as the eastbound platform. The canopy included louvre ventilation. There was also a connection from the main line, albeit at a speed limit, for the few direct trains from Bristol. This too was built to broad gauge. There were five services each weekday, and two on Sundays. These services were also operated by the Great Western Railway, until 1849 when the Bristol & Exeter took over its own workings. By 1869 the number of weekday services had increased to nine. From 1867, Yatton was also served by coal trains for the local gasworks. Yatton became even more important on 3 August 1869 when the Bristol & Exeter opened the broad-gauge Cheddar Valley Railway, which became famous for the transport of strawberries from stations such as and . The line was extended to Wells on 5 April 1870, where it joined with the East Somerset Railway line from Witham, and through services from Yatton to Witham became normal for this line, with between five and seven services daily. To accommodate this new traffic, another bay platform was built, this time on the south side of