I rememember reading somewhere that the change-ringing was related to the method of threshing, where a bunch of men stood around the floor bashing the grain with flails. Obviously, they needed to do it in an order. Equally obviously it was going to be excruciatingly boring if they just went 1,2,3,4... so they invented change-flailing. (I wish I had kept the reference). This made it interesting for the mathematicians among them, and something of a game at which novices could be caught out and mocked for the others. This then was transferred to the bells. "Only the English" I believe the text included, "could have thought of using bells for working out mathematics."

Penny