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The principal excavation and recording project in the Midlands area was at Witley Court near Worcester. The parterre gardens created by William Nesfield in the 1850s were surveyed; the balustrade that surrounded them cleared of vegetation and fallen detail, and fully recorded, and half of the main bed of the east parterre was excavated to reveal the intricate box and coloured gravel design, and evidence for its frequently changed planting. Further excavation, which is to continue in 1997-98, examined the gravel paths that framed the gardens, and the complex series of drains associated with them. The context for this work is the planned repair and partial restoration of the gardens. The recording of the house itself continued, with a detailed survey being made of the cellars of the east wing where a considerable amount of early-seventeenth-century brickwork has survived in an unaltered state. Additionally, a partially collapsed early-twentieth-century boathouse on the lake in front of the house was recorded to inform its eventual repair.