150 Years Old - But Still Not Running Out of Steam!

It all began in 1860, 150 years ago, when James Graven himself started out specializing in agricultural engineering, exporting goods all over the world, predominately to India. Over the next few years, James Graven & Sons began developing steam engines, mainly for agricultural purposes, before moving into the motor vehicles industry in 1912. At this time, James Graven attended a reception with the founder of Ford Motors, Henry Ford, at the Savoy in London.

The natural progression from the motor industry was into forecourts and these were initially established in Chatteris. Jonathan and Rebecca (nee Graven) James took over the company in 2000 when it had two sites at Chatteris. 2002 saw the opening of Witchford Road, Ely a return to the spiritual home of James Graven. In fact Ely’s Broad Street still has the original advertising panels for the company on several buildings.

Soham Budgens was bought in 2003, the first corporate store to be sold to an independent, followed by a complete rebuild of West Park Street, Chatteris in 2004. Our Dersingham Budgens was acquired in 2007, one of the last sites to be sold by Musgrave. 2010 was a busy year for the company with refits at Ely and Soham and Littleport site being built and opened. 2011 has so far seen the opening of a baby James Graven Budgens at Millbrook House, a sheltered housing scheme in Soham – a real community project.