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We do not think that leggings were very common in England, but in fact we have very little information. England's relarively moderate climate may be a factor here. Some wealthy children may have worn them in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but we think they were not commonly worn. We note Little Lord Fauntleroy illustratins with leggings, but this may reflect American rathr than English fashions. We also note nostalgic English Christmas cards with leggings, so they may have been worn to some extent in the 19th century. We notice two English girls wearing leggings in the 1920s.
A British reader writes, "I remember wearing leggings. It must have been when I was three. I never went to school with them and I started in 1934, just before I was four, so it would have been during the winter 1933-34. The reason I remember was because I wouldn't stand still while mother did up all the buttons, so I got my leg slapped. They were a sort of milk choclate brown felty sort of material. The number of buttons to fasten must have put a lot of mothers off buying them for their children. I remember seeing my little sister wearing them too."
Another reader, Barbara, tells us how she wore leggings in the 1940s. They were out of style by that time, but her mother insisted that she wear them. She didn't like them at all.
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