Figure 1.--These English children in 1909 have been dressed in smocks to play in their back garden. HBC wonders how common it was for proper little English girls to play cricket at the time.

HBC has noted a variety of uses in England for smocks. Many are adult usages. The most well known are the smocks widely worn by rural workers in the 19th century. They were also worn by factory workers, but less commonly. Shop girls also wore smocks and some still do as do butchers although others prefer aprons. We note that Morris dancers sometimes wear smocks, presumably a reflection of the smocks commonly worn in the English countryside during the 19th century. Smocks have been less commnly worn by children, especially boys. We note that some English children did wear smocks in the late 19th and early 20th century. We do not have extensive information but as described elsewhere on this page, it was usually pre-school or very young primary school children. Smocks were more commonly used for a child's paly clothes to protect his or her clothes. We believe that this was not uncommon in the late 19th and early 20th century, although there seem to have been class connotations.

Adult Usage

Many are adult usages. The most well known are the smocks widely worn by rural workers in the 19th century. We are not sure about the chronology. We think that smocks had disappeared ny the 20th century, but wecan notyet confirm that. Here we believe that not only did farmers and agricultural workers wear smocks, but so did their sons. We are less sure about their daughters. We do not have any photographic portraits to confirm this, but we have collected ome drawings and other art work. A good example is a drawing by Harold Copping for a school book. They were also worn by factory workers, but less commonly. Shop girls also wore smocks and some still do as do butchers although others prefer aprons.

Morris Dancers

We note that Morris dancers sometimes wear smocks, presumably a reflection of the smocks commonly worn in the English countryside during the 19th century. Many of the modern images no longer show the dancers wearing smocks, but white pants.

Children

Smocks sem to have been less commnly worn by English children than adults, especially boys. We know farmrs wore smocks in the 19th century. This seems to have been the farmers and nt their wives. We are less sure about children in the 19th century. We have been unable to find images of rural children children wearing smocks like their fathers. Perhaps they ds, but we have been unable to find any evidence of it. And we hae have very few images from the early-19th century. The images that we do have are paonted portraits in whivch the children are wearing their best clothing. And like the smocks that farmers worem, the smocks children wore were to protect their clothing. Even after the development of photography, we still do not see English children wearing smocks,but this may be due to the limited size of our mid-19th century archive. We note that some English children did wear smocks in the late-19th and early-20th century. We do not have extensive information but as described elsewhere on this page, it was usually pre-school or younger primary school children up to about 8years of age. This was the age at which boys began at preparatory schools, often boarding schools. As far as we can tell, smocks were more commonly used for a child's paly clothes to protect his or her clothes. We believe that this was not uncommon in the late 19th and early 20th century, although there seem to have been class connotations. The images we hve found show children from comfortabke middle-class or upper clss families. We do not see working=class children wearing smocks. English children may have beern dressed in smocks to play in the back garden on a nice summer day. [HBC note: The English say back "garden" instead of back "yard". An English frriend was most hurt when I called her lovely garden a "back yard".] A mother might dress all her children in identival smocks if the boys were not yet ready for voarding school (about 8 years old). They may have also been taken to the park to play, although I am less certain of that. We believe that using smocks as play wear was more common for affluent, than working class families. It seems to have had rather a continental look to it. A good example of this would be the Llewellyn-Davies boys of Peter Pan fame in the 1890s and Chritopher Milne of Christoopher Robin fame.

Image

Concerning the 1909 image of children wearing smocks shown here, the children certainly look like girls . We know, however, that boys in the early 20th century sometimes had long hair and hairbows. Such hair bows were generally worn by boys on the side of the child's head. Girls were more likely to wear them on top of their head. We wondered how likely it would be for girls to play cricket because the older child is holding a cricket bat. Certainly it would be much more likely for boys than girls to do so.

One of our British readers tells us, "I see no reason why they should not have done so in a back garden family game, rather than an organised school match." Another reader writes, "I have no doubt that little girls would play with anything available in their back garden. However, would mom or dad buy a cricket bat for twin girls? The one holding the cricket bat seems to know what he/she is doing. I for one have never seen a girl portrait with a cricket bat and I have looked at a lot of photos."

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Created: May 31, 2002
Last updated: 1:03 AM 7/12/2014