State Highway 2 and the Tāneatua Branch railway line (disused) pass through the town.

[4] The town is named after the small village of Edgecumbe in Cornwall, United Kingdom, between Penryn and Helston.

Edgecumbe was linked with Tauranga and Auckland by rail, with the opening of the East Coast Main Trunk Railway and Taneatua Express in 1928.

It measured 6.3 on the Richter magnitude scale and struck the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand on 2 March 1987, just after 1.42 pm.

[10] A foreshock just minutes before had cut the power supply and many people had moved away from heavy machinery and out of their houses.

A crack 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long opened in the Rangitaiki Plains near Edgecumbe, as a result of the earthquake.

The intense ground-shaking caused by the earthquake led to a large number of ground surface failures, including sand boils, ridge-top shatters and debris avalanches on steeper slopes.

Edgecumbe is slowly recovering as it has increased by 21 in the years 2006 to 2013, possibly due to many kiwifruit orchards being affected by PSA.

At 8:30 am on April 6, water from the Rangitaiki River breached a stopbank next to Edgecumbe, causing widespread flooding across the township.

The event highlighted a significant gap in animal welfare emergency management capability in New Zealand.

The Association Football Club Plains Rangers AFC[18] is based at the Edgecumbe Domain, along with rugby and hockey.