Jubilee Field

The Council are proud of the schemes carried out at Jubilee Field which include a sensory garden, a younger children's play area, a multi use games area, a skate board area and new goalposts for the football field. These amenities are in regular use by children of the parish

The name Matching is probably of Saxon origin, derived from Maeccingas, the settlement of the people of Maecca (Match).

Matching comprises a unique collection of vernacular village building types: a 15th century manor house (Matching Hall); an early 13th century parish church (St.Mary the Virgin); a lobby entrance house of c.1600 (the Vicarage); a 15th century public hall (the Marriage Feast Room); an aisled tithe barn of c.1600 and a late 17th century dovecote (at Matching Hall). Matching Hall, St.Mary's Church and the Marriage Feast Room are all Grade II* listed buildings.

Matching Green has one of the largest village greens in Essex. Its almost triangular shape extends to 5.6 hectares (13.8 acres) and is lined along each edge by a variety of (mainly) detached cottages and houses ranging in age from the 14th to the 19th century, twenty-eight of which are listed buildings. Since there are relatively few trees, the buildings are important in defining the shape and size of the green. Cricket has been played on the green for over 100 years.

The oldest surviving building in the area is "Lascelles" (on the west side), a Grade II listed hall house which dates from the 14th and mid-16th centuries. The Moat House, which lies on the north-east side of the green, was probably a manor house and dates from c.1500. Part of the former moat lies to the rear of the property.

Matching Tye

The word "Tye" means a settlement around a common or green and is a fitting description for this small hamlet. The houses and cottages which cluster around the small green at the centre of the Conservation Area afford a good sense of enclosure to this key space. The mature horse chestnut tree at the centre of the green provides an attractive focal point.

The oldest buildings in the area are Ployters Farmhouse and "Little Brewers" which both date from the 16th century and are listed Grade II. Other listed buildings include: Gainsborough Cottage (18th/19th century); 1 and 2 Shetlocks Cottages (17th century); Shetlocks Farmhouse (17th century lobby-entrance house); the barn behind Shetlocks Farmhouse (17th century); and Rose Cottage (18th century, once two cottages). Although not listed, almost all the other buildings in the Conservation Area are of interest and contribute to the special character of the area.

Sensory Garden

Play Area

Football field

Multi use Games Area

Play Area

AWAITING IMAGE

The Marriage Feast Room, built c.1480 "for the entertainment of poor people on their wedding day" (Morant 1768), is an attractive building originally built as two halls and used as a school and as an almshouse in the past. The building is "jettied" away from the church which tends to confirm its secular intention as similar buildings, often designed as meeting places for religious guilds, are usually jettied towards the church.