George Ewart Evans had this to say about Threshing and Change-Ringing in The Farm & The Village (Faber 1969):

All those who had experience of threshing with the flail agree that it was monotonous and gruelling work, only relieved by having company -five or six men threshing on the middlestead at a time.  To break the monotony they resorted to many devices.  One of these was to keep a certain pre-arranged rhythm, and as we have seen the design of the flail lends itself to this.  In the Suffolk village of Barking those threshers who were also bell-ringers went onto the threshing floor together -perhaps half a dozen at a time; and they used the same rhythm while threshing as they as they used in the steeple when ringing the bells.  As they were change ringers, some of the rhythms were exceedingly subtle.  Most middlesteads were floored with elm or poplar before the coming of the machines (nearly all have since been concreted) and the threshing rhythm could be heard some distance from the barn.

There's an interesting account of village bell-ringing in Ewart Evans' Ask the Fellows who Cut the Hay.

Malcolm