Exclusive By Phil Coleman

Last updated at 10:14, Friday, 24 July 2009

It's a cosy new twist on the problem of how we should lay our loved ones to rest.

Dawn Evans with one of the wool coffins

For those who would rather not meet their maker in an ornate wooden casket, there’s now a humble and rather unusual new alternative – the woollen coffin.

Neither chic nor glamorous, the coffins, woven from Swaledale wool, offer a green route to eternal rest for those concerned that their passing may hurt the environment.

Staff at Walker’s Funeral Directors in Carlisle are bracing themselves for a surge of interest in the new-style coffin, which were used for the first time this week.

They come in three standard sizes – small, medium and large – but in only one colour – a gentle shade of cream.

Instead of a gleaming brass name plate and ornate metal handles, the occupant is identified with a neatly embroidered name tag.

The coffin is closed by means of toggles, reminiscent of those seen on duffel-coats, while the handles are hessian.

To give strength, there’s an inner structure of tough cardboard, with a pleated cotton lining, again in cream.

“We think there’ll be quite a lot of demand for these new coffins,” said Dawn Evans, a partner at the Wigton Road funeral directors.

“They’re very tactile, soft to the touch, and a bit more pleasing to the eye than ordinary cardboard coffins.

“The family whose relative was buried in one this week were delighted with it. We believe their mum was the first in Cumbria to be laid to rest in a woollen coffin.

“They wanted something biodegradable and I’d just become aware of these new woollen coffins. It seemed ideal for their needs.

“The coffin is also very strong, and the bigger one is capable of holding somebody weighing up to 20 stones.

“I suspect this coffin may come to lead the way in green funerals because they’re both pleasing to the eye and kind to the environment.”

Francine MacKenzie, 69, from North Yorkshire, said she was delighted with the woollen coffin which she and other family members chose for her late mother Maisie MacKenzie, who died aged 91 and was cremated on Monday this week at Carlisle Crematorium.

Francine, who lives in Swaledale, said the coffin was just what the family wanted, being natural and having a Yorkshire link from the wool.

She said: “At first when it was mentioned to me, I had visions of woolly jumpers and thought ‘Yak!’ But then we saw it and I was really impressed: it looked absolutely great. It was also very touchable.

“I was also immensely touched by the personalised embroidered nameplate.

“My mother was a very ordinary woman, who struggled, like other women to survive, and she would have been over the moon – in paradise, even – to know that she had become the first person in Cumbria to use a woollen coffin.

“She’d also be chuffed to know that it was being reported in The Cumberland News.”

Maisie had lived in Braithwaite, near Keswick, although she had previously lived in Keswick itself.

First published at 05:13, Friday, 24 July 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk