The site was originally known as Twenty Mile Hollow. In the 1830s an inn called The Woodman was built there. Ten years later the inn became known as the King's Arms, later popularly known as Buss's Inn after 1855. Sydney businessman Alfred Fairfax converted the building into a private home some time later and renamed it Woodford House. The railway station adopted the name Woodford in 1871. Woodford House later became a private boys' school and is now a heritage-listed building.

A centenary time capsule was buried at Woodford railway station on 14 December 2002 by Chris Parr, Woodford's station master at the time. He collected items from the locals which went into the capsule to be opened in a hundred years.