FUNDS for tracking equipment is being sought to help turn a York village’s tranquil meadow into the city’s first natural burial ground.

Rufforth with Knapton Parish Council is aiming to allow people who want their final resting places and those of their relatives to be in peaceful countryside the opportunity to secure plots within a patch of land next to the area’s formal cemetery.

The organisation has placed a bid for about £1,200 in funding from City of York Council’s Rural West York ward committee to enable them to buy a device allowing graves at the Southfield Lane site in Rufforth to be traced as the years pass.

As the burial ground would not allow tombstones or other memorials, biodegradable coffins and caskets for ashes would be fitted with a chip containing the details of the deceased, with a hand-held console being used to identify the point where people are laid to rest.

The technology is also necessary under burial guidelines. Parish councillor Helen Butterworth said: “When the church cemetery in Rufforth became full, we bought a patch of farmland in Southfield Lane to create more plots, and it was then suggested that we use the meadow as the first natural burial ground within a five-mile radius of York.

“It would be completely free of any memorials, with flowers and trees being planted instead, and we hope it would give people something different when considering burial arrangements as the idea has already been very popular in other areas.

“Some people do not like the idea of tombstones and memorials and find them depressing, while they can also become neglected. This would be a place of peace in completely natural and beautiful surroundings and we think it will become an increasingly attractive proposition.

“But we are required to have a system of identifying precisely where graves are so the details of those buried there can be recorded, as well as to make arrangements for people to be buried near their relatives and so visitors can find graves, which is why we have applied for the funding.”

The parish council also says the burial fees would help to pay for the upkeep of the meadow.

Ward committee member Coun Ian Gillies saying: “The funding request meets the criteria for awarding grants, and it will be interesting to hear the views of residents in response to it.”