This is the closest answer. I was there. Codies actually got its start in a small light industrial unit in Banbury, about 20 miles down the road, but when the Darling family bought a run-down farm in Southam we all (well, probably less than 10 people at that point) relocated to some hastily renovated stables there. I don’t think it was ever anticipated to be a huge employment hub. That just sort of happened. We gradually grew a crop of portable buildings out the back to accommodate all the programmers that came to work on special projects as the company moved beyond the budget games market, and a small team of builders were on site for literally years gradually converting outbuildings and improving the house etc. There were no other developers around, save for Archer McLean who coincidentally lived a couple of fields away. The Leamington-centric games dev community all grew out of Codies. I expect that’s a good part of why the boys picked up CBEs a few years ago.