THERE’S a saying about a stranger being a friend you haven’t met yet.

It was clearly coined by somebody who’d never rolled up in a new town and been given the old “you’re not from round here” treatment.

Either that or they were a bell ringer.

Church bell ringing has all the advantages of belonging to a powerful global secret society without any of that tiresome world domination stuff that gets other secret societies a bad name.

It also offers the chance to create part of the national consciousness, making a sound that’s glorious to all within earshot and as spectacular as a rocket launch if you happen to be on the opposite end of a rope to it.

Today, as part of the centenary celebrations of The Gloucester & Bristol Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers, its Swindon branch was holding an open day, with members visiting 19 ringable towers throughout the town and in other locations ranging from Ashton Keynes to Wroughton.

“I like all the history involved in bell ringing, and in doing something that’s been going on for hundreds of years,” said Ann Eyles, ringing master of the 10 bells at Christ Church in Old Town.

Ann, 46, is a nurse by profession and has been a ringer since childhood. “It’s a very sociable hobby,” she said.

Her parents were ringers, she began her own ringing career at 12, she met her husband through ringing and all three of her children are ringers.

One those children, 19-year-old Liverpool University geology student Peter, was among the group who made their way up the narrow stone spiral staircase to the 160-year-old ringing chamber of the church for an Adver photo session.

“I’ve been ringing for seven or eight years,” he said. “And I’ve been coming up here since I was a baby – I used to have my playpen here.

“I like the social side of it. You just get to meet people of all ages and from all walks of life.”

Like many students who are also bell ringers, Peter arrived in his new home city to find a circle of friends ready and waiting for him at the university ringing society.

Another of the younger ringers at Christ Church, student nurse Sarah Meaden, 21, also stressed this sense of common ground. The previous week she had visited and been welcomed by ringers on Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.

Other Christ Church ringers have been welcomed to towers in Australia, New Zealand, much of Europe, the continental US and even Hawaii.

Deb Vyning, a retired teacher, said: “You can ring somewhere and then not meet them again for years, but when you do meet them again you have common ground.”

Each bell in a tower is numbered, and teams of ringers play what are known as changes – sequences of rings that are never repeated during a session.

A peal consists of more than 5000 changes and can take several hours to complete.

Each bell rope is attached not to the bell itself but to a large wheel, and the laws of physics allow even a bell weighing as much as a car to be operated with ease by a trained ringer.

Notable Christ Church peals are celebrated in plaques on the ringing chamber walls that date back to the 19th century.

Some of the young ringers named on those 19th century plaques are remembered as older people by retired NHS administrator Brian Bladon, 77, who has been a bellringer for about 65 years.

“All the young people here have that same feeling of sharing in the tradition,” he said.

“We want to make sure we pass that tradition on to future generations.”

Newcomers are always welcomed, and are usually ready for full ringing duties after two or three months of weekly hour-long training sessions.

The only restriction is that ringers should be committed and available on most Sundays.

Further information can be found at www.swindongandb.moonfruit.co.uk