[2] However, this first viaduct collapsed during a gale in January 1847,[3] with a local newspaper reporting that "27 out of the 50 perpendicular supports were blown down [and] such was the distance that they had to fall, the strongest timbers were broken into splinters and matchwood.

[7] Improvements and repairs were undertaken after the 1869 report, and in 1874, an appointed inspector tested the viaduct by running four engines coupled together (each weighing 40 tonnes (44 tons)) across it, and checking for vibrations.

I am far from wishing to create any unnecessary alarm, but I should not be doing my duty if I did not state, as a result of my examination, that in the present condition of the viaduct, a reasonable and sufficient margin of safety has not in my opinion been preserved.

[12] However, some criticism was levelled at the company (the L&YR) in that the new viaduct was built over an old coal mine, and a letter from the town clerk of Denby Dale stated that some of the old workings had been filled up, but not all.

[19] The contractors for building the viaduct were a local firm, Naylors, who tendered a cost of £27,650, (equivalent to £3,288,000 in 2023) and estimated a time of two and half years.