This is the ancient Ape Dale seat of a branch of the Hill family from Court of Hill. Alcaston’s current incarnation is said to have been the result of a timber-framed build by Humphrey Hill (d. 1585), who had married Elizabeth (d. 1575), daughter and heiress of Humphrey Ludlow. The hall and west cross-wing have been dendro-dated to 1557 and the upper chamber of the cross-wing formerly served as a manor courtroom, with an ogee-headed external door. Although much altered, with its lower storeys now rebuilt in brick, the house still presents a picturesque ensemble of three gables of differing height and width. That on the left is square-framed with a diagonally braced gable; the projecting porch has quatrefoil panel decoration, with a row of balusters running below the eaves, whilst its neighbour has concentric bracing to the gable. The right-hand projecting wing is a nineteenth-century brick substitute for two further gabled projections, noted by Forrest to have been lost by a fire. Mrs Stackhouse Acton depicted the innermost of these as highly ornamental, having concentric lozenge framing and an oriel widow. She also showed star shaped, brick chimney-stacks to the south-west side, which are also no longer evident.

The Hill family sold Alcaston in 1853 to trustees of Joseph Loxdale Warren (d. 1888)3 and, after 1926, a new wing was built in brick to replace the section of the house that had been lost. This, and the lower storey of the rest of the house, was formerly painted to emulate timbering but this has now been removed, exposing the brick.