Silsden brothers launch campaign to turn Victorian school into Castle Raven Forge

Tom and Sam Ive, whose company Raven Forge make replica historical weapons from TV, films, and video games, have set out their plan to transform the former Aire View School site into a mediaeval castle experience.

Tom said: “We always wanted to be based in our home town in Silsden, so when the school came up for sale, the idea of being able to have a historical building in the centre of our home town was too good to pass up.

“For us this site is very special, it means so much to us on a personal level, our children went to school there, and so did our sister Rosie who now works with us.

“We’ve put an offer in and the council are weighing up their options, but realistically it’s between us and the housing developments.”

Tom and Sam’s plans for the Silsden school include a new physical store, a historic mead hall, and an axe throwing range, along with blacksmithing experiences at its forge.

Since launching in 2019, Raven Forge has built a large online community, helped along by the brother’s live stream events.

“The community grew so fast,” said Tom.

“We did these online live streams during lockdown, where we decided we were going to be like Friday night entertainment. We’d go on, drink, do karaoke and quizzes, and it just blew up massively. Now, three years later, it’s just huge, there’s ten thousand in the community, 100,000 on Facebook. Our community has given us so much, they have been so incredibly supportive of what we do, and we want to repay them by creating a central community hub.”

The brothers are offering the full asking price of £1.5m for the former school site, but are looking for the community to also throw their support behind their bid.

The team have now launched a Kickstarter which aims to raise £150,000 towards Castle Raven Forge, and in return offers backer rewards ranging from their famous limited edition pizza axes, to the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on the site.

“We’re ready to stop being an online shop and start being a physical location,” said Tom, “and the chance to meet everyone from the Raven Forge community when we do that is so exciting.

“They’re a mad bunch, a lot of them are really big Viking enthusiasts, or mead drinking history nerds, but we’re just like them, that’s why we started Raven Forge, they’re our people.

“A lot of people will work in an industry that is lucrative, or that they saw a niche in, and although this is both those things, we did it because we’re some of the very few people that actually live that niche.

“We go to the big conventions, we do the historical sword fighting, this is our life, we’re part of the community.”

The pair also believe that Castle Raven Forge could be beneficial to the local Silsden community.

“For Silsden, I think it would be a really good thing,” said Tom.

“We’re just off the High Street, so the rest of the businesses would really see the benefit as well.

“Its for both the Raven Forge community and the Silsden community, and we’re just lucky that they would both be our customers.”

Tom added: “Community is at the heart of everything that we strive for.

“For us that sense of belonging and having a vested interest is one of the core foundations that underpins our business.

“Our family lives in Silsden and we have seen the town transformed by housing developments over the last 30 years.

“We want to see this fantastic school building become the beating heart of the community once more. Family means everything to us. Opening our doors to our community is genuinely massive.”