Monk Makes Silk For Queen's Coronation Robes Dom Edmund reeling silk from cocoons, with the "swift" in background. Dom Edmund, a 44-year-old monk, who joined the benedictine order twenty one years ago, is busy at St. Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, Hants making the silk which will be used in Her Majesty?s coronation robes. He started producing silk about five years ago and at that time planted some 7,000 mulberry tree seeds, and last year, for the first time, produced the necessary leaves to feed. April 3, 1953. (Photo by Paul Popper Ltd.).