Rolleston, the Saxon Hrothwulfstun, called Rothulfeston in King Edmund's charter of A.D. 942, remained one of a number of small agricultural communities along the Dove Valley for over a thousand years and continued as such until recent times despite the coming of the railway to the village in 1894. Apart from small-scale cottage industries, (brickmaking, basket-weaving, malting, smithing), there has never been any real industrial development in the village.

In 1848 the North Staffordshire Railway opened their connection to Burton via Tutbury and Marston Junction to gain access to the growing brewery trade, but it was not until 1894 that the village station was opened to passenger traffic. The first Chairman of the Railway Company was Sir Tonman Mosley, later Lord Anslow, and he decreed that the railway should not pass within one mile of Rolleston Hall, hence the location of the formerstation at what is now the entrance to the Jinny Nature Trail (Named after the Tutbury Jinny Train).

The station was given the name of Rolleston on Dove to distinguish it from Rolleston in Nottinghamshire where a station already existed.

The railway provided a much needed means of transport to those villagers who travelled to Burton for their livelihood or their shopping. Footpaths gave access to the station from Beacon Road and Craythorne Lane and the principal access, Meadow Lane, was renamed Station Road. The newly opened station became a catalyst for a Victorian/ Edwardian building programme when houses were built adjacent to the station in Dovecliff Road, South Hill and Station Road establishing a second site of habitation separated by fields from the old village and it became officially known as Rolleston on Dove.

Meanwhile Rolleston itself remained largely unchanged with relatively few new properties being built.

Following the aftermath of the 1914/18 War, Rolleston was still a small community and its village farms were still active. However the sale of the Mosley Estate in the mid 1920's and the demolition of the larger part of Rolleston Hall released new land for building and the 1930's saw housing development along Beacon Road and Knowles Hill and to a lesser extent on Anslow Lane.

It was after the Second World War that the village trebled in population beginning with the building of a council estate in Elizabeth Avenue, followed by the Walford Road and The Lawns/Hall Road estates in the 1950's and 1960's. Smaller developments continued with Twentylands, Hawksley Drive and Alderbrook Close and later Glebe Close and Croft Close. The most recent development in the village was Meadow View built in the 1970's. This finally joined the two halves of the village together creating one and a half miles of continuous housing stretching from Dovecliff Road to Hall Road. The combined villages then took the name Rolleston on Dove. It now has a population of 3,500.

Community spirit is maintained by a large number of organisations, including the Anglican and Methodist Churches (both with their own voluntary groups), the Civic Trust, two Women's Institutes, British Legion, Cricket Club, Golf Club, Football Club, Swimming Club, Music Circle and Choral Society, Allotments Society, Scouts and Guides, and the Rolleston Club which has a bowling green.

The closure of the Forest of Needwood High School (presently Burton College Rolleston Campus) in 1985 was a major loss to the village community not only in educational terms (the school had the best facilities in the area) but also in recreational value. The large hall and other adjacent rooms were the home of the largest Youth Club in the County, the Rolleston Festival of Music and the Arts (which attracted many performers of international renown) and a thriving Evening Institute for adult education. Existing buildings on this site should not be demolished to provide extra housing without giving consideration to the new educational and recreational demands that this action would create. There are fortunately smaller facilities in the village which cater for most meetings and events, a factor which has prevented the building of a village hall, despite feasibility studies and other investigations over more than thirty years.