I was just looking something up on GOOGLE BOOKS and came across this fully downloadable book A Glossary of North Country Words, in Use: With Their Etymology, and ... By John Trotter Brockett Published 1829 E. Charnley COCKERS, or COGGERS, properly half-boots made of untanned leather, or other stiff materials, and strapped under the shoe; but old stockings without feet, used as gaiters by hedgers and ploughmen, are often so called. Cockers occurs in Bishop Hall's Satires. In Lancashire the word is often used for stockings. There is a small place not far from Bolton, called Doff-Cocker, where, my friend, Mr. Turner, informs me, it used to be the fashion for the country people who came from church or market to pull off their stockings and walk barefoot home. Martin Briscoe Fort William M&LFHS | Gwynedd FHS