Edwinsford is a vast derelict, partly roofless mansion set on the left bank of the Cothi. Originally built in the seventeenth century it was greatly added to in the later nineteenth century, but slid into disrepair and dereliction through the twentieth century. It stood at the centre of extensive gardens and grounds with a park to the west under Moelfre hill (NPRN 266173). The stable court (NPRN 31611) and Home Farm (NPRN 17442) are sited on the far northern bank of the Cothi.

The earliest part of the house was built in the 1630s to an unusual design, square in plan with a pyramidal slate roof rising to a tall central cluster of chimney stacks. At least three similar houses were built at this time - Cemmaes Bychan in western Montgomeryshire (NPRN 28959), Ty-Mawr at Llansilin in Denbighshire (NPRN 35462), and Trimley Hall in Flintshire (NPRN 36275). The Cemmaes Bychan house was referred to by its builder as a summer house and it may be that the original house at Edwinsford was not intended as a 'regular' mansion. What appears to have been a separate house was added to its north-west angle in the 1660s. This wing was a more conventional three bay composition, two storeys with attics under a gabled roof, with a central entrance hall and stairway with reception rooms to either side. A fourth bay had been added on the north by 1776 when what appears to be a chapel with a bellcote adjoined on the north. At some time at least one leaden statue was placed upon the roof ridge (see NPRN 23033).

The nineteenth century work saw the 'chapel' replaced by a towering ballroom wing and its bellcote has been reconstructed on the former dairy across the river (NPRN 31597). A pair of estate cottages opposite the park's Iron Gate Lodge were built as a curious model of the original house (see NPRN 17452).

Sources: NMR Site Files
Smith in 'Carmarthenshire Studies', ed. Barnes and Yates (1974), 72-3, fig 14b
'Houses of the Welsh Countryside', (1975), 232-3, fig. 131c

John Wiles, RCAHMW, 5 October 2007