"there aren't any elderly English people on Mudcat."
.,,.

I'm 82. How elderlier do you want?

I have called them nothing but socks all my long life; in my family, stockings were something women wore. But have been aware that some people called them 'stockings', as in Richmal Crompton as you wrote; and team colours as shown on soccer match programmes would sometimes say stockings, sometimes socks; and some fellow schoolboys would refer to their stockings, which I always found a bit funny.

So my impression is that, idiomatically, stockings and socks were interchangeable for men's/boys' foot & lower-leg garments, tho I think socks much more common; but the ladies' pre-tights garments, up to the thighs and suspended or elastic-topped, were only called stockings.

Hope that helps.

≈M≈