It was created in the early twentieth century by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease at the Genetical Institute of Cambridge University.

[8]: 318  They cross-bred American barred Plymouth Rock birds with brown Leghorns and created the gold and silver colour varieties.

Pease created a cream Legbar by cross-breeding these with white Leghorns; later crossing with Araucanas caused this to have a crest and to lay blue or blue-green eggs.

As with the Cambar, they set out to breed a bird that would both have brown down and carry the barred gene (B), so that chicks would have sex-linked plumage differences that could easily be distinguished.

An experimental crossing of these with some cream-coloured Araucanas from Punnett's laboratory led to the creation of the cream Legbar, a crested layer of coloured eggs for which a standard was drawn up in 1958.