Not to be confused with Gatacre Hall, which stands to the north, Gatacre Park appears to have always been a distinct property which was long a seat of a branch of the Acton family. Prior to the Actons, the estate was owned by the Elliott family and, during the time of John Elliott, following the Battle of Worcester, the house gave shelter to the Earl of Derby.

The Actons of Gatacre Park were descended from Thomas Acton (1623–1677), the supposed eldest son of Sir Edward Acton 1st Bt (1600–1659) of Aldenham, who was settled with the estate by his father. Thomas appears to have been illegitimate and was baptised at Morville on 25th January 1623. In maturity, he married Mabel Stonor in 1661, and the couple had five children. The appearance of their house at Gatacre is not known although, in 1672, it had seven fireplaces when assessed for hearth tax.

After Thomas’ death, in 1677, Gatacre passed to his younger son, Thomas (1665–1734), and then to the younger Thomas’ only child, Edward Acton (1704–1767). The estate then went to the eldest of his three daughters, Frances (1747–1803), who married Elijah Barrar (1733–1769), a glassmaker from Stourbridge. The Barrars’ son Edward (1767–1822) assumed the Acton name in 1791 and inherited the estate.

Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Farrar Acton (1805–1890) succeeded his father in the Gatacre Park estate in 1822 and remained at its helm until his death, at the age of eighty-five, in 1890. He had been a Major in the Shropshire Militia and, during his ownership, the old Elizabethan house was razed to the ground in 1849. Whilst the demolition took place, several swords were found, one of which was noted as being in a good state of preservation. He replaced it with a new house of brick with stone dressings of vaguely Italianate design. The main block is of two storeys, with a three-storeyed service wing to the north, the whole unified by a hipped slate roof that is set within a low moulded parapet, whilst the windows have moulded surrounds – those on the ground floor with consoles supporting moulded cornice hoods. The west-facing entrance front presents an irregular array of five bays, the most northerly being a broadly spaced projection.