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Shopping for clothes, especially women's and children's, is as frustrating as at home, English clothing sizes for women tend to be about one-two sizes smaller than U.S.   Unfortunately, these, too, are just as irregular as home, with the more expensive brands tending to be somewhat more generous in their proportions.    

Children's are sized by some inexplicable average for each age.  Thus, my tall, slim 10 year old girl was wearing 12-13 and even edging into the 14's.  

Men's sizes are fairly comparable to the U.S., running only a little bit smaller.  But do your shopping for tall men/big men in the states.  There are many tall men here, but the clothing is hard to find and substantially more expensive when you finally do.   Some of the larger towns have Big & Tall Shops but be aware that they mean that their sizes are both big and tall.  (My tall man is normal width and found their clothes didn't work for him.)  Land's End has a catalog department here, and that helps but it's still substantially more expensive than state-side.

Shoes sizes are larger  for women as there is no difference between men's and women's sizes.  If you're shopping for ladies shoes, subtract 2 from your usual size.

Buy your Levis, Nikes, Addidas - basically most of the better brand names - back home. They're outta sight here.  You will find outlets such as GAP and GAPKids, Levi's, Eddie Bauer (in London), Liz Claiborne but be prepared to pay dearly.