Matching

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 c1910

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.