The business started in 1848. James Laing (born in 1816), along with his wife Ann Graham, and some employees whom they had hired, built a house on a plot of land that they had bought for £30 in Cumberland. The £150 proceeds from the first house financed the building of the next two houses on the same plot of land. One of these houses was kept by the Laing Family to live in. The family and the business later moved near Carlisle.