My Adventures 3: The Matchings,Essex Walk 8th March 2019

On Friday the 8th March 2019 I drove off not knowing where I was walking today. I saw a road sign for The Matchings in Essex. That sounds nice lets head there! I park up in The Matching Village Hall car park in Matching Green and walk up into the village.

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Matching's name is of Saxon origin, derived from the people or tribe of Maecca (Match) who settled in an open area of pasture called an "Ing", hence 'Matching'. In the Domesday Book (1086) it was called Matcinga.

The actor and comedian Rik Mayall was born at Matching Tye.

Gainsborough Cottage is situated in the picturesque village of Matching Tye, set within a conservation area, in front a picturesque green. A plaque on the front indicates a date of 1692, but there is significant evidence to suggest that the origins of the house are earlier. Relatively recent history of the house indicates that it was a Post Office until 1938 and an eccentric artist purchased the house and added a considerable quantity of quality period features, including the dramatic front entrance canopy. This handsome building is constructed mainly with a timber frame and rendered elevations and is Grade II Listed, considered to be of architectural and historical merit.

The Fox Inn is an 18th Century pub, set in the peaceful village of Matching Tye.

The Fox Inn

I take a footpath on my right and head down a part of The Forest Way.

I am now heading into Matching and get a view of the beautiful church.

All its Domesday manors were fertile but small and poor — the three small manors held by the Abbey of St Valery, Geoffrey de Mandeville, and Ralph de Tony each had a single ploughteam in 1066. Matching from the mid-medieval period had four manor houses, which now stand on or near their medieval sites.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is Grade II* listed architecturally — there is no mention of it in the Domesday Book but the Norman church was probably built on an old Saxon site. The tower was added in the 15th century. It is plain, square and embattled and surmounted by a low tiled spire and weather clock. It retains its original 13th century doorway.

Six bells are in the tower, restored in 1990. It is inscribed "God Save the Queen". The second and third bells were originally cast about 1500 by William Culverden of Houndsditch, and inscribed "Sancte Thoma ora pro nobis" and "Sancta Anna ora pro nobis"; the fourth is inscribed "God Save the King. 1615" and the fifth "God Save the King. 1640" They were both made by Robert Oldfield of Hertford. A sixth bell was added in 1887 to celebrate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Matching Hall is one of the four and one of three Grade II* architecture buildings in the old village centre, which is dominated by the church and is a cul-de-sac also accessible by footpaths.. Richard de Montfichet held the manor in 1260.

The clock on the church tower was removed from the old church at Epping when the church was pulled down, and set up in Matching in memory of Henry Selwin-Ibbetson, 1st Baron Rookwood of Down Hall.

Marriage Feasting Hall

A notice displayed at the entrance states that the hall was built by William Chimney in 1480. This detached two-storey building, close to the church, is the other Grade II* listed building in the parish and is a timber framed Tudor building with 19th and 20th century extensions, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles; an inside wall has a Victorian chimney stack. Two plain boarded doors form the entrance, on which side windows have horizontally sliding sashes of 16 panes, four on both floors, and one 20th century casement window on the first floor. Facing the church are two small 20th century casement windows, whereas the first floor has four 19th century neo-gothic cast-iron casement windows. Some framing remains exposed internally. On the ground floor, at the north-west end a stairway rises from one external door to the first floor. At the SE end an original studded partition separates one bay from the remainder — the main section is open.

Inside are visible the transverse and axial beams, plain chamfered except in the service end with joists lathed and plastered to soffits. There are grooves for sliding shutters. The first floor is open from end to end and to collars. Posts are jowled with cambered tie-beams with arched braces. Plain crownposts have axial braces, much restored. Upstairs are two large rooms. The Hall has been used as a school and an almshouse, with inserted partitions and chimneys; most of these have been removed. Morant wrote in 1768: "A house, close to the church yard, said to be built by one Chimney, was designed for the entertainment of poor people on their wedding day". It seems to be very ancient, but ruinous", without supplying a Christian name or date. That its jutting façade faces away from the church tends to confirm this secular intention, for buildings of similar form designed as the meeting places of religious guilds would have a jutting midsection facing towards the church.

On the south wall the first window commemorates the restoration of the church by Lord and Lady Rookwood. The other stained window on the south wall is dedicated by parishioners and friends to the memory of Lord Rookwood who died on 15 January 1902. The east window, which commemorates Edan, Lady Rookwood, are by Powell of Whitefriars.

St Mary's organ is a rare Bevington with pipe work over the console. A brass plaque commemorates the erection of the organ by Mrs Calverley of Down Hall in memory of her brother, Sir Frederick Henniker, of the 60th Rifles, who died on 19 August 1908.

I leave the church and head off on a footpath opposite and pass Brick House Farm.

I now leave the footpath and emerge out into Matching Green.

A World War II airfield, RAF Matching, was located nearby in Matching Green. A memorial plaque remembers American airmen who lost their lives in World War II when stationed at RAF Matching. They came from the 391st Bombardment Group of the U.S Ninth Air Force.

Matching Green has one of the largest village greens in Essex. The green is almost triangular in shape, covers 5.6 hectares (13.8 acres), contains the local cricket field, and is edged by mainly detached cottages and houses dating from the 14th to 19th century, twenty-eight of which are listed buildings. The village public house is The Chequers at the western edge of the green.

The site of the former RAF Matching lies to the east of village.