Chris Rundle tracks some well-travelled luxury socks to Devon's Blackdown Hills. Pictures: Fran Stothard

I t was the last recession that really started it. The mohair sweaters that Steve and Jenny Whitley had been selling, all knitted from the fleece of their angora goats, suddenly became luxury items as consumers tightened both their belts and their purse strings.

Which left the Whitleys, farmers in Stockland, on the Blackdown Hills in East Devon, in something of a dilemma: what to do with all that raw material.

"So we did some lateral thinking and decided we ought to have a bash at some socks," said Steve.

"Jenny started knitting some on a flatbed machine – and the first time we brought them out they all went. They all sold, just like that.

And when we heard that one woman had bought some and sold them on for £40 a pair we realised we probably had something successful on our hands."

That was in 1992. Twenty-seven years later, mention the name Corrymoor to anyone who walks or who believes that socks should be stylish as well as comfortable and you will get an instant reaction.

Corrymoor socks have, indeed, become a cult. Such is the enthusiasm with which they are bought, such is the pleasure to be gained from wearing them, that the Whitleys receive an endless deluge of endorsements from deliriously happy customers. "When you think about it, people writing letters in praise of a product at all is a pretty odd activity anyway, but when it's about socks it's somewhat surprising," said Steve.

But the testimonials continue to flood in for the Corrymoor range, which started off at a modest four styles but now extends to 12, available in 15 colours. Some of them are in vibrant tones which are particularly suited to the lustrous mohair fibre.

Angora goats originated in Turkey but are now farmed around the world, including in South Africa, Texas, Lesotho, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

In similar fashion, Corrymoor socks are apparently tramping around the world on the feet of their delighted owners. They've scaled Everest, trudged across the Arctic, been down to Antarctica and trudged through the Australian outback.

"The latest place they've reached was South Georgia," said Steve, who has the air of being faintly bemused by the growing Corrymoor fan club. "They were worn down there by people following the route of Shackleton's traverse. I don't think there's any corner of the planet they haven't reached.

"The letters we get are quite incredible. People say things like 'Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a pair of Corrymoor socks'. Some people even describe them as 'life-enhancing'.

"People have told us they have given pairs to everyone from wildlife wardens in Alaska to Bedouins in South Jordan. It's staggering."

So what is it about mohair that makes wearing it on one's feet quite such an experience? Well, as well as being strong and durable it's three times more resistant to abrasion than ordinary sheep's wool. Because the fibres are smooth they are more comfortable to have next to the skin.

They also don't trap bacteria, which cause smells and affect foot health and, since they are three times more resistant to rubbing than sheep's wool, socks made from them are more durable and more difficult – some addicts would say nearly impossible – to wear out.

Corrymoor socks are now selling at the rate of 30,000 pairs a year – and sales show no sign of slowing. But that level of production is clearly beyond anything that can be achieved on a flatbed machine in a Devon farmhouse.

In fact, since the very early days when the Whitleys realised they had a potentially storming commercial success on their hands, production has been in the hands of a specialist Midlands sock-knitting business with its own, proud pedigree – it's been in the hands of the same family since the Industrial Revolution.

But the heart of the business is still very much on the Blackdown Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty straddling the Devon and Somerset border and running from the southern outskirts of Taunton almost down to the East Devon coast.

Here the Whitleys run their mixed organic enterprise on 128 acres of pasture and woodland, with 18 cows and followers and a small flock of sheep – now hanging, as Steve puts it, by a very thin rope given the meagre returns they deliver.

Their angoras have been claiming show championships since 1998, but even animals of this quality can't provide enough of a clip to make 60,000 socks a year. So the Whitleys also use them as breeding stock, selling the progeny on to other farmers and buying back the mohair they, in turn, produce.

There are no plans to expand the Corrymoor home herd, however.

"When you balance it out, because of the work involved it makes sense to buy in more mohair from other people than to create extra work for ourselves taking on more animals – so we shall probably stick at the size we have got," Steve says.

That's not to say the Corrymoor brand is not going places.

"It's the middle-of-the-range mohair which is used for socks, but we get an awful lot of fine, kid mohair off our own animals and we're thinking about using it to produce mohair scarves because it would be ideal for that.

"Just think about it – mohair keeping you warm top and bottom. It could really catch on." And yet another cult could be about to be born.

For more about Corrymoor socks go to www.corrymoor.com