A photographic print of Industry, Textiles - Cloth, Silk

FOR FIRST PUBLICATION THURSDAY'S EVENINGS, July 24th., SILK WORMS THAT HELP BRITAIN'S EXPORTS 24.7.1947. A small but very important aid to British export trade is being given by about six million silk worms which are being reared at Lullingstone Castle Silk Farm, run by ZOE, LADY HART DYKE, near Eynsford, Kent. The aim and object of the farm, which is now getting going again after the the war, is to develop and assist production of raw silk in this country, the Dominions, and the Colonies, and what started off as a girl's hobby, developed on a business footing in 1932, is now a flourishing industry housed in one of Britain's ancient homes. The Lullingstone silkworms are known all over the world for millions of them have been exported, and it was from their silk that the Coronation Robes for the Queen and the Princesses were made. One of the difficulties at present being experienced is the lack of mulberry leaves on which to feed the worms, for the eighteen acre plantation at Lullingstone is only producing about half the number of leaves required to feed six million tiny mouths. It is interesting to note that the method of using the silk cocoon for spinning and weaving was first known in China at least 3,000 years B.C. It was James I who endeavoured to encourage silk worm rearing in this country by ordering the importation and planting of thousands of mulberry trees, but the Royal scheme was a failure. George I then took a keen interest in the silk industry and in 1718 he granted a patent to a certain John Appleton for silkworm rearing. Shaking down a batch of cocoons to find the leading threads for the reeling machine after boiling. Industry - Cloth - Silk