Can't say i've ever heard of it, but i reckon it should be revived....but don't tell the wife !

I wonder if this is where the term the old bag came from?

Not much fun was it? Bee

I think we ought to have a ' Bundling ' week in Wales. I quite like the idea of ' Bundling '. Come to think of it I've bundled for decades without knowing it. If Hay On Wye can have a literary festival then Treorchy can have a 'Bundling' festival. Ha ha! Only women need apply.

there was a pratical side to this most farms were far between and a suitor had to travel a distance to find a bride , so unable to return home and be in church of a sunday the future groom slept over , and went to capel at his future wives capel

It was because the bundling took place in the woman's home. When this practice was in full flow it just wasn't done to tie up a man in someone else's house. Of course no one was going to send a woman to a man's house either as the parents couldn't guarantee her safety.Bundling of course gave ample opportunity for premarital sex and as is the case today a few chancers made it their business to court as many women as they could. Of course they weren't always successful in their 'lunar manoeuvres' as 'twere but when they were a surprise package was usually left behind.

good lord. it's clear I've led a sheltered existence...why didn't they sew the man up? tchah!

LOL, boy! And in that instance you'd need a good internal alarm clock to beat the rest of the household up and out the door, wouldn't you?

When I buy shoes/boots, I always try them on first before committing to the contract!!!!!And that is all I'll say on the matter.Bundling?I'VE ALWAYS BEEN GOOD AT UNDOING KNOTS AND FAILING THAT I ALWAYS CARRY A PENKNIFE

Yes, of course they would have, that would have been a basic custom, how you live and what you do, it wouldn't change if you moved somewhere else. This is my theory that a lot of early American settlers were Welsh and that if we look we'll find a lot of our customs come from there. I've said this before but the most common family names in this country are Welsh and many people here think they're just "American" names and we don't know where they came from: Jones, Johns, Williams, Thomas, Evans, Price, etc. I must know at least ten or fifteen "Williams" that aren't related to each other (as far as they know).

In keeping with our venerable traditions and inspired by the example of our glorious leaders in Cardiff Bay the Americymru Editorial Board has convened an emergency meeting of the Extraordinary Sub Committee on Pre Marital Moral Rectitude.. After due deliberation we will deliver our official position on "bundling" later this week.

I think that would have been the logical next step as a young man and woman could do an awful lot of damage if the man was adept at unpicking and resowing stiches. LOL

It was certainly prevalent here and was taken to America very early on in that country's history. Why wouldn't it be come to think of it. Early settlers would have taken their traditions with them.

Ha ha! A bolster was one of those long pillow case that stretched the width of a bed.

What I remember reading about the colonial version was that BOTH people were sown into separate big sacks, basically.And if I were the parent, I'd probably be more "for" it than if I were a young participant.

Did this originate in Wales? Bundling was a custom in parts of the Colonial-era US, also, and I'd love to know if that's where it came from. I found a wiki entry on it and it said that it was a courting tradition, just like you said above, but I'm pretty sure I've read also that travelers in the winter that came to a farm would bundle with women in the household "to stay warm" or something like that. The wiki entry also talks about this being a practice of the Amish in Pennsylvania (descendants of German immigrants) and using a "bundling board" placed between the two people I guess to remind them to stay separate.Here's the wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_ (tradition)

lol...on this site we are all, of course, concerned to ensure the utmost moral rectitude at all times. I must admit I hadn't heard of this tradition. Before casting my vote either way can you describe the "bolster" a little more. Sounds like it might be a bit uncomfortable.

Bundling was a tradition peculiar to Wales, I believe, where a prospective husband was allowed to spend a night with the woman of his desire to determine whether they were compatible. To maintain propriety the woman was sown up in a bolster case such that only social intercourse took place. This was called Bundling and of course it showed the world that two young Welsh adults locked up in a bedroom all through a cold winter's night would behave with the utmost moral rectitude.Any comments?
updated by @ian-price: 11/11/15 10:36:58PM