Watch out, there's a mason about. Worry not, though, because these days Oxfordshire's 2,300 Freemasons proclaim themselves to be less secretive than in days of yore - and they are keen to recruit more candidates for initiation as brethren of their craft.

Provincial Grand Master Stephen Dunning, who when not wearing his Mason's apron is a Carterton solicitor, said: "I am quite happy to talk about what we do."

And the Masons' official spokesman in the Province of Oxfordshire, Tony McClusky, added: "We are not a secret society but a society with secrets. But we have only two secrets: one is the handshake and the other is the words that go with that handshake.

"And these only happen within the Lodge. They don't occur outside in the wider world, as secret recognition signals, or for any other reason."

The Freemasons' Province of Oxfordshire is drawn using old boundaries, excluding parts of the Vale of the White Horse, notably Abingdon, but including Caversham, which is now in Berkshire. Their headquarters, the Masonic Centre, is in a splendid north Oxford Regency villa at 333 Banbury Road.

There are also nine other centres - in Banbury, Bicester, Burford,Caversham, Chipping Norton, Henley, Thame, Witney, and Woodstock - where the Oxfordshire province's 57 'lodges' (groups of members) meet.

In Oxford itself, one of the most famous of these lodges is Apollo, which recruits men -no women - from Oxford University. It has a special dispensation to initiate masons at 18 rather than the usual 21. It now has about 140 members and Mr McClusky said that recruitment was "holding up well".

Mr Dunning described Apollo as the UK's "flagship" university lodge. It was founded ("consecrated " in Mason terminology ) in 1819 by a member of the Town - as opposed to Gown - lodge, which had come into formal existence back in 1814.

But Masons are keen to explain that Freemasonry has a far older history than these dates imply. In 18th-century Oxfordshire, for instance, there were already several lodges, but the active history starts with what is known as the Union of 1813 when the two branches of the so-called 'Craft', known as 'Ancients' and 'Moderns', joined forces.

But what influence do all these men with funny handshakes and a propensity to roll up their trouser bottoms have on business life in the county these days? After all, they once had the nickname of "backscratchers", so are they some sinister force pulling strings behind the scenes in such organisations as the police, local authorities, universities, judiciary, or any other area of activity?

Provincial Grand Master Stephen Dunning said: "No more than would be the case in any club of like-minded people - a tennis club, for example."

Mr McClusky, answering the same question, said: "We have members of the judiciary here, and plumbers, but all are equal in the lodge. We simply want to encourage good, honest, free men."

Mr Dunning added: "If I found out, under my jurisdiction, that anyone was using his membership to further his own business interests, he would be in dire trouble and could be expelled. Three years ago, we did indeed investigate a case in which it looked as though someone was using membership for personal gain.

"There was also the man who wanted to join. When asked why, he said that he had reached that stage in life when it would be an advantage to him. He did not join."

Mr McClusky added: "When asked this question, I always point out that the general manager here at 333 Banbury Road, a flourishing conference centre, is not a Mason."

Last year, Oxfordshire Freemasons gave about £65,000 to charities, of which about 60 per cent went to general charities as opposed to Masons' charities.

Mr McClusky explained that Masons' charities were there to help Masons and their descendents. "For example, health care, if the NHS cannot do things on time. Or there are homes for the aged."

So why all the secrecy and mystery about the rituals performed by the various lodges in the masonic centres? Why do masons not simply pay their subscription (between £80-£120 a year according to lodge) and get on with good works?

Mr Dunning said: "Freemasonry is built on allegory and symbols, and I would hate the old ways to go. They help reinforce the message of certainty and stability, of brotherly love, relief and truth, which in turn help members progress through their lives."

Mr McClusky added that in earlier times the Masons were not accused of excessive secrecy, but during the Hitler period in Germany, when Freemasons were persecuted, they became more secretive.

Best known of the rituals of course, at any rate to outsiders, is the handshake and the rolling up of one trouser leg. Why do they do that?

Mr Dunning said: "This takes us right back to early Masonry, when Freemasons were stonemasons. In medieval days, long before A-level certificates, most Masons could not read or write; so when they turned up at a building site, they needed some secret sign to show they were initiated into the trade."

A postulant mason, becoming an apprentice, rolls up his trouser leg to show he is indeed a free man, and there are no signs on his leg of his ever having been shackled. After that, he progresses through 'fellowcraft' before taking the third degree and becoming a master Mason.

All this talk of trousers prompted me to ask why there were no women masons. I learned that there are indeed women Masons - but not in the mainstream order.

One of the earliest recorded non-builder Masons was a well known Oxford name: Elias Ashmole, the man who gave the collection of curiosities forming the rudiments of the Ashmolean Museum to Oxford University. His diary records his becoming a Mason in Lichfield in 1646. The UK's 350,000 masons in England have the Duke of Kent as their grand master. They are required to believe in a Supreme Being, which means masonry is open to people of most faiths.

As for masons in Oxford University, there is the passage in Cuthbert Bede's Verdant Green, a book about a 19th-century undergraduate, published in 1857. It describes Mr Green's sham initiation into the Order of Cemented Bricks: "I meant a mason with a petticut, a freemason . . . there's a deal of mystery and very little use in it." Well, many, evidently do find use in it.