Lullingstone Silk Farm was established by Lady Zoe Hart Dyke, Tom Hart Dyke's paternal grandmother, in the early 1930s and was the country's first such farm. She began the enterprise at Lullingstone Castle, later moving to Ayot St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire in 1956, and was credited with reviving the 'art of sericulture' in the UK. The silk produced at Lullingstone Silk Farm was used in Queen Elizabeth's (the late Queen Mother) coronation robes in 1937, for the current Queen's wedding dress in 1947 and for the robes in her susbequent coronation in 1953.

Lady Zoe ran quite an operation - much of the House was taken over to breed hundreds of thousands of silkworms and more than 20 acres of the estate were populated by mulberry bushes to feed them. Tom Hart Dyke's paternal grandfather Sir Oliver also designed, produced and installed machines to reel the cocoons - 'power' reelers - which were then manufactured for export. Below (left) are silkworm cocoons which form part of a display of the Silk Farm's history at Lullingstone Castle and below (right) Lady Zoe's son, Guy Hart Dyke, helps out on the Farm in November 1947, pictured opposite the Forewoman Mabel Standen.

         

In 1947 the Farm was commissioned to produce silk for an altar frontal for St Botolph's, which now hangs in Queen Anne's bedroom in the House for visitors to see. The Silk Farm later produced silk for the late Princess Diana's wedding dress but by that time, the Farm had been sold and moved to Worldlife & Lullingstone Silk Farm in Dorset, where it still is today.

The below images document Queen Mary's visit to Lullingstone to visit the Silk Farm in 1936 (left) and then Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh inspecting Lullingstone's silk reels at the Ideal Home exhibition in 1948 (right). 

            

There are video archives available on-line documenting different aspects of the Silk Farm's work. Watch here for Lady Zoe feeding the silkworms, and here for the traditional silkworm blessing ceremony at the beginning of the season, taking place in St Botolph's Church at Lullingstone. In 1937 Lady Zoe was also interviewed by Time magazine: read here. Lady Zoe is author of So Spins the Silkworm (1949).

At Lullingstone we have various displays documenting the history of the Silk Farm.

Related articles

Queen's wedding dress restored for unique show, The Telegraph, 27th April 2002