Situated on the 'Top Road' from Burry Port to Pembrey, North of Pembrey Old Harbour, and the 'Links'.

Pembrey House was built by Edward Gaunt in 1820 where he lived until his mysterious departure in 1842 after his bankruptcy. Shortly afterwards John Stanley lived there originally from Ashton Under Lyne in Lancashire, who was the colliery Proprietor of the New Pit in the field below Pembrey House. Later sometime between 1861 and 1871 James Elkington and his family lived there, by 1891 the house had changed hands again, and Charles and Charlotte Whatman lived there, by the time the Ashburnham Estate was put up for sale in August 1922 the occupants were Lady Catherine Ashburnham and Mr Hy. Roberts as yearly tenants of £170.00.

The following is transcribed from the sale poster of August 15th 1922 :-

All that delightful and charmingly situated, Freehold Mansion, Grounds and Lands, called and known as Pembrey House,

Situated near the main road from Llanelly to Kidwelly, in the Parish of Pembrey, standing in its own grounds and surrounded by picturesque coppices, containing by admeasurement : 29 Acres, 0 Roods, 12 Perches, or thereabouts.

The Mansion which is Modern Built contains the following accommodation, viz:-

On The Ground Floor :- Entrance Hall, with Tasselated Floor and Solid Oak Staircase leading there from to first floor, Inner Hall, Library with Round Bay Window and French Window Leading out to Verandah, Dining Room with ditto., morning Room with round bay Window, Glass conservatory and Vinery, Butler's Pantry (Burglar Proof), Clothes closet, Principal Staircase, Back Staircase, Housekeepers Room, Lamp Room, Servant's Hall, Kitchen with large Range, Scullery, Dairy, and Larder, Outside Slope Shed, Coal House, Oil Shed, and 3 Cellars in Basement,

First Floor :- Drawing Room, 6 Bedrooms, Bathroom, 2 W.C.'s, and Housemaids Cupboard.

Second Floor :- 8 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms, and W.C.

Outbuildings :- Garage in 2 sections, Stable with 4 Stalls and Loose Box, Laundry, Ironing Room, 2 W.C.'s, Fruit Room with Loft Over, Corrugated Iron Open Shed, Well Arranged and Planned Gardens and Pleasure grounds, Summer House, Large tennis Court, Rockery, and Figure Fountains. Glass conservatory on Garden, Corrugated iron Potting Shed, and boiler House, heating both houses.

Llanelly Mercury, Thursday, February 19th 1914

"Pembrey House" 'The Welsh seat of Lady Catherine, daug of the late Right Hon. the Earl of Ashburnham, will undergo extensive alterations. We understand that the contract of several hundreds of pounds has already been given out to a Neath firm'.

During the Second World War the War Office housed British & American troops in the house, and lastly Evacuees were housed in the mansion.

Eventually due to lack of supervision and upkeep the house was deemed uninhabitable, the grand old house was demolished in the 1960's.  

There are other stories of the Grand House and its eventual demolition, many told by local people, If you have a story about Pembrey House, please send your views and information to Carmarthenshire FHS

We have recently found information regarding the Oak Staircase, A local Carpenter has informed the Society the he removed the Staircase for the owner at that time, and that the only damage to the staircase was that of water damage caused by the damage to the roof, which allowed the weather and rain to damage the property.

On high ground above the Village of Pwll, originally a farmstead, built around the turn of 16th and 17th centuries, Changing owners several times, James Phillips owned it in 1678, Robert Donn in 1695, and was followed by John Rees a very successful farmer and land agent, and later by his son Hector Rees (1683-1760) the Rees' enlarged the house, and around 1850 the then owner John Hughes Rees (1806-1871) pulled down the original house and rebuilt it. The last of the Rees family to live at Cilymaenllwyd was Mansel Rees a Llanelly Solicitor (1840-1889). Early in the 20th Century the Howard-Stepney family acquired it and it then passed to the Murray-Threiplands. In 1913 the mansion was enlarged, and later became a convalescent home of the Dyfwed health authority, and became a private nursing home in 1985.

The first mention of these farms, is from 1690 when Sir Edward Mansell of Mudlescwm owned them, and leased the property to John Bonvill a Yeoman (farmer) for a period of 31 years.

They can be found North of Dyfatty in Burry Port on higher ground and close to Goodig.

In the 1861 & 1871 Census returns LLether Ychen Fawr was a farm of 260 acres and farmed by William Thomas employing 10 men.

LLether Ychen Fach was 40 acres and farmed by Thomas Thomas.

On a hillside, between Burry Port and LLanelli, overlooking the Burry estuary. The name was also rendered as Gwdig. Originally a farm, the dwelling was transformed into a small attractive 'plas' towards the end of the 18th century. Thomas David Roger ab Owen of Goodig left an only daughter Anne, who married Evan Price of penyfan, LLanelli, who settled at his wife's house. He was still living in 1756. Their daughter Anne Price married John Thomas, Gent., of Trekyrn, LLanwinio, who eventually came to live at Goodig, where he died some years before 1754. There two children, John and Elizabeth, were born at Trekyrn. John Thomas born in 1731, came to live at Goodig, and although married he died without issue in 1791, and was buried at Pembrey.

Goodig passed to his sister who married in 1763, Captain John Wedge of St.Ives in Cornwall, A sea Captain who settled at Goodig. His eldest son John Wedge lived at Goodig where he died in 1853, aged 88, and left a son and three daughters; the younger brother Joshua John Wedge built Penyfai near LLanelli, and had a daughter Elizabeth (died.1885) who married James Buckley who lived in Penyfai before he bought Castell Gorfod in 1871.

James Buckley's grandchild, Mrs Margery Long-Price, wrote an interesting history of her family at the beginning of the present century.

The original house of four storeys had been rebuilt or restored in 1701, and a stone in the front wall was inscribed 'T.P.E. 1701'. The house and environs were much improved by the Wedge family in the early 19th century, and being piously inclined, the house was used for services by the Plymouth Bretherin. One of their number. John Wedge of Goodig, Made a useful chart of Burry Estuary in 1805.

Extensive alterations were made to the house in 1895. The house was let later in the 20th century, and finally sold, and for some time during the 1960's and 1970's was used as a Hotel. But was later burned down, and is still derelict to this day.(feb.1994).

Built by Josiah Mason, and occupied by Howard Elkington of Warwick and his wife Anne from Kidwelly, Howard Elkington lived at Plasnewydd from just before 1860 until the mid 1880's when he and his family moved to Leeswood, Mold, in Devon, where he died aged 63 and was buried in Pembrey Church on 3rd January 1899. After Howard Elkington, Thomas Chivers and his Family were at Plasnewydd, Thomas Chivers came from Maesteg in Glamorgan and his wife although being a British Subject was French, Thomas Chivers died in 1901.

Court Farm (Cwrt)

On a slope overlooking the western approach to the Village. The manor was held by the Butler family as early as 1361, and remained in their hands until the early part of the 16th Century when it passed by the marriage of the Butler heiress, to the family of Vaughan of Bredwardine and Dunraven.

Walter Vaughan of Pembrey Court was High Sheriff in 1557, and his son Thomas served the same office in 1566 and 1570. The Vaughans in due course ended without male heirs and the mansion and estate came to Bridget Vaughan, sole heiress, who married John Ashburnham of Sussex in 1677, and thereafter remained in her Ashburnham descendants.

Ashburnham made a tour of his wife's extensive Welsh estates in 1687, and noted in his journal that he had seen 'Pembray House, which is an old stone house, large enough, and kept in pretty good repaire'. Two years later he was raised to the peerage as Baron Ashburnham. The third Baron was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Ashburnham in 1730.

The Estate continued to be owned by that family until 1922 when it was advertised for sale, and with the death of the 6th and last Earl of Ashburnham in 1924, the Ashburnham connection was over. Although the latter-day Vaughans and the Lords Ashburnham never resided in the old manor-house it was by no means neglected, and was lived in by a series of the estate agents and yeomen who kept the building in good trim, one of the sons born at Court being David Thomas (1739 - 88) who became one of the leading bone-setters of that period. Neither were manorial rights overlooked, and manorial courts continued to be held down to the first half of the 20th century and the franchises exercised.

The Court was later bought by farmers, but towards the 1950's it became ruinous, and is now empty and wholly ruinous but capable of being preserved as one of the few surviving examples of one of Carmarthenshire's manor houses.

Copyright©  Carmarthenshire FHS 2000.   

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