Waikato Business News October/November 2022

22 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS, OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022
The Waikato is
absolutely booming
The Waikato is booming compared to the rest of New
Zealand, and it’s based on solid foundations.
Old data tells new story
I waded into a data lake and
solved a 300-year-old mystery.
Our confidence in our economy
was clearly articulated in the
recent Westpac Mcdermott Miller
Regional Economic Confidence Survey.
We sit at a strong plus-16% net confidence
for the September quarter, with every
other region except Wellington at negative
net confidence.
So why are we confident? One reason is
the ‘trickle around’ theory that goes: one
year’s great dairy payout results in three
years of economic growth for the Waikato.
With now two and potentially three
years of strong dairy returns, the export
dollar foundations of the Waikato
are looking strong.
Waikato is confident
in our future, which
attracts others seeking
opportunity to live and
grow. We have many
major industries as our
foundation; we have
room to grow
However, we’re no longer solely reliant
on dairy. We’re a region of manufacturers
that are growing: you see the likes of Gallaghers,
Prolife Foods, Profile Group, Porters,
Power Farming, and recently you see
Sleepyhead looking to set up in Ohinewai.
We have world-class tech firms such
as Company-X, IT Partners, The Instillery,
Aware Group, Shift72 and SkyPoint
Technologies employing talented graduates
out of The University of Waikato and
Wintec Te Pukenga.
With a benign geography, we’re a
region with rapid growth in sectors such
as health, agtech, education, professional
services, and importantly logistics.
The latter is evidenced by Tainui Group
Holding’s wonderful Ruakura Superhub,
Hamilton Airport’s Titanium Park development,
the University’s Pa project, Innovation
Park’s recently opened building,
ACC’s new building on Collingwood St,
as well as Foster’s Union Square development
that houses Rabobank’s headquarters.
The evidence is in concrete. Businesses
and their people are migrating to
the Waikato.
Waikato is confident in our future,
which attracts others seeking opportunity
to live and grow. We have many major
industries as our foundation; we have
room to grow.
We have a chance to avoid congestion
that so besets others. Our geography actually
gives us a competitive advantage.
The Mighty Waikato will be a powerhouse
of the New Zealand economy long
into the future, as well as being a great
place to live, to bring up families, to work,
prosper and play.
Written by Don
Good,
CEO of Waikato
Chamber of
Commerce.
I
found the lost medieval
priory house of Appuldurcombe,
Isle of Wight, UK,
by curating a data lake - a
centralised raw data storage
repository - over 30 years.
The exact location of the
old Appuldurcombe Priory
house has eluded experts since
its demolition between 1690
and 1720. Visitors have picked
my brains on the location
since 1982 when, aged nine,
I became a schoolboy guide
there.
Appuldurcombe Priory was
founded in 1090. It became
the seat of the Worsley family
in 1529 when Henry VIII’s
whipping boy Sir James Worsley
inherited the lease from his
wife Anne’s parents.
Sir Robert, 4th Baronet
Worsley of Appuldurcombe,
demolished the priory and
built a masterpiece of Baroque
architecture.
I became more determined
to find the site of the priory
after conducting guided tours
of Appuldurcombe in 2018
for Company-X co-founder
David Hallett and 2019 for
senior software developer Rob
Scovell.
The second question any
visitor to Appuldurcombe asks
is where was the priory house.
In 1720 Sir Robert wrote he had
not ‘left one stone standing’.
In 1781 Sir Richard Worsley
claimed, ‘the old priory house
was situated a small distance
from the present mansion.’
The first question any visitor
asks is why the current
house is in ruins. It suffered
catastrophic damage during
the Second World War and
stripped for building materials
before the Government halted
demolition on the grounds of
its architectural merits.
I embarked on a combined
textual criticism and data validation
exercise during the last
COVID-19 lockdown.
Three vital pieces of data
helped solve the puzzle.
Sir Robert’s annotated
drawing of the old priory
house, estate accounts kept
by the Steward of Appuldurcombe
Caleb Dowding, and
Lady Anne Worsley’s letters to
her father Lord Weymouth of
Longleat House.
They suggest the old priory
house was demolished and
rebuilt Baroque-style one wing
at a time.
The accounts show construction
was well underway
by November 19, 1701, when
Sir Robert paid “Mr Fisher,
Stonecutter” for putting up
chimneypieces, one in the
“best chamber over the chapel”
and another in the dressing
room.
Lady Worsley’s letters suggest
Appuldurcombe’s new
chapel, best chamber and
dressing room were built over
the priory’s northeast wing
containing the stable and
chapel.
“The Chappell goes up
apace,” Lady Worsley wrote in
1701. “I wish he would let them
go on as fast with the rest of the
building, that we might see an
end of it, which I hard hope to
do.”
The accounts show when
the chapel block was completed
Sir Robert moved onto
the Great Hall at the centre of
TECH TALK
BY CHRIS GARDNER
Chris Gardner is
Communications Manager at
Waikato software specialist
Company-X.
the building. First, he repaired
the hall, following the Great
Storm of 1703, and then rebuilt
it. Archaeologists suggested,
early this century, that the
internal ground floor wall of
the Great Hall may be from the
old priory house.
Sir Robert left more than
one stone standing.
He finished by demolishing
the southern wing of the priory
containing the Great Drawing
Room and Library, building
the south elevation of the new
house containing the southeast
pavilion (Drawing Room),
Library and southwest pavilion
for Dowding to occupy.
The function of rooms in Sir
Robert’s new Baroque house
mostly matches those of the
priory proving, beyond reasonable
doubt, that one is constructed
on top of the other.
Archaeologists uncovered
foundations of an earlier building
beneath the southern elevation
of the current house in
1986 as well as Tudor rubble.
Architectural historians
describe Appuldurcombe as
eccentric, unusual and strange
on account of its large protruding
pavilions dominating the
central block. Pavilions are
usually set back into the main
building, or completely separate
of it. One reason for such
an unusual footprint is that
it follows the footprint of the
original priory house.
My work shows poor quality
data in insolation can tell a
very misleading story, and an
abundance of good quality data
can set the record straight.
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