Coedmore (nprn 120656) is located above the north-east bank of the Afon Teifi, on the opposite side of the river from Cilgerran Castle (95037). The house is surrounded by gardens and grounds which lie mostly to its north and east. There are two distinct areas. First, there is the garden in the immediate vicinity of the house and secondly there is the large area of wooded pleasure ground beyond it, to the north and east.

The house is approached from the north-east by a long drive, which winds through the woodland from the Home Farm (416264). The garden north of the house is a gently sloping lawn, crossed by the main drive and bounded by a straight ha-ha beyond which is an old orchard. An iron gate to the south-west of the lawn opens to the woodland beyond. South-west of the house wooded ground falls steeply to the river but with a narrow, massively reveted, partly lawned terrace in front of the house. A small raised stone paved platform with a stone bench on it on the south side of the garden. A grass path continues around the edge of the garden. On the immediate south-east of the house and garden in a circular pond lined with herringbone stonework.

The wooded pleasure grounds differ in character from the garden, being a large area of deciduous, largely beech, woodland with some conifers nearer the garden. Within it is an intricate network of winding, unsurfaced, picturesque paths enhanced by streams crossed by stone bridges, with steep-sided ravines and a precipitous drop to the river on the west. On steeper slopes there are stone steps. To the north-west of the house, on an elevated bluff overlooking the Teifi ravine, is an irregular, oval enclosure surrounded by a partly-ruined rubble stone parapet wall up to 1.3m high, reveted on the west, and with a ruined gazebo built into its north side. The enclosure was built as a garden feature, probably of late seventeenth century or eighteenth century date during the first phase of the garden development, pre-dating the path network. Early investigations below it, on the banks of the Teifi, by RCAHMW staff during the First World War suggest the survival of early earthwork terracing.

The grounds around Coedmore developed from the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century. But it is probable that the garden and grounds took on their present form around the time that the present house was built by Thomas Lloyd in 1816-33, following the destruction by fire of its predecessor. No remains of an earlier garden adjacent to the previous house have been detected. About 500m north-west of the house is the nineteenth-century walled garden (700220).

Sources:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 100-104 (ref: PGW(Dy)70(CER)).
Ordnance Survey, 25-inch map: sheet Pembrokeshire III.13 (second edition 1904).
Additional notes: D.K.Leighton.

RCAHMW, 6 June 2022

Site Record

Coedmore Woodland Garden, Cilgerran