A borehole, commencing at 18" diameter, was put down from the base of the existing shaft to the full depth of 75yds without interfering with production but there was no guarantee that it was truly vertical. The borers gave a guarantee, however, that it would be less than 2ft out and later it was found to be less than 1ft 10ins. To do the boring, it was necessary to make a small engine house in the shaft side. Work was done on night shift and at a rate of 4-6ft per shift, the hole being completed in 2 months. The deep level tunnel reached the position beneath the existing shaft and located the borehole in May 1942. The cavity for the new pit bottom was then formed and bricked 2ft thick, 16ft high and 15ft wide to accommodate the new 15ft shaft. It was then necessary to sink downwards from the new pit bottom for 20yds using conventional methods to form the new sump. After the sump was completed, shaft "raising" commenced. The company used its own employees, partly as they felt the work needed careful treatment since they would be driving upwards to connect with their working shaft. The shaft raising method used was fairly conventional and it is described in "Iron & Coal Trades Review" for September 14th 1951. The drawings accompanying that article show the method clearly. The work of rising continued without affecting the shaft operations above until a point had been reached where only 10 yards remained solid. From here, all work was carried out at night when the shaft winding operations above were at a standstill. The shaft was completed in August 1944 and the total cost of the new shaft, which was done entirely by one chargeman and two men including the borehole, worked out at £47-4s-0d per yard. A shaft about half this diameter 80 years before on the Titterstone Clee Hill cost this much. Before full depth winding could commence, a larger winding drum had to be fitted to take the extended rope. Ifton Shaft was now 482 yards deep.

 

Ifton Colliery was one of the more profitable collieries of the National Coal Board in North Wales. The workings were very steep and the seams liable to spontaneous combustion with underground fire a constant problem. The headgear at Ifton was transferred from Brynmally in 1937.  In 1947, the colliery was nationalised along with its neighbour in Wales, Black Park Colliery only 1¾ mile away. At that time Ifton Colliery, then still known as Brynkinnalt although this was now only a ventilation shaft, had seen its number of employees fall to 974, while Black Park had 402 employees. In 1949, it was decided to close Black Park and to work the remaining coal from Ifton.  By 1960, the modernised Ifton Colliery had manpower of 1,250 and a daily output of 1,750 tons. Gertrude Shaft was the only shaft at Ifton Colliery, however, with Brynkinnalt Colliery at Chirk acting as a ventilating shaft. This proved very restrictive for both the winding capacity of coal and of materials. In 1966, a 910 yards long tunnel was driven at over 1 in 5 gradient to connect the underground workings of Ifton and Black Park, which was then used to assist with the ventilation.  In 1968, Ifton was closed because of the constant threat of fire (due to spontaneous combustion) and the loss of markets, resulting in a stock of 134,000 tons of coal being stockpiled at the colliery surface. Within two months of the closure however, this stock of coal had all been sold.