St Mary's Church Matching

St Mary's Church is situated in rural Essex surrounded by farm land but close to the villages of Matching Green and Matching Tye. It is an important part of our local community being used for worship, weddings, baptisms, funerals and concerts. There has been a church on this site for 900 years.

We are now faced with major structural problems with one of the walls of St Edmund's Chapel within the church leaning outwards and separating from the roof. It is now possible to see daylight through the gap between the wall and the roof. This movement of the wall has caused multiple internal cracks and damage to an archway.

The work necessary is to tie in this wall to the main structure and the roof of the chapel and chancel will then need replacing. The church bell tower also leaks badly in heavy rain and its roof also needs replacing.

The chapel is used for private prayer and children's activities during services. It also contains memorials to people who gave their lives in the two World Wars. One of these memorials is to the men of the American 391st.Bombardment Group who flew from the airfield built by American force engineers in nearby Matching Green. Relatives of these American airmen often visit the church to see these memorials. 

The church is kept open for visitors every day and it receives people from all over the world. The visitors' book contains entries by recent visitors from Australia, the USA, Poland, Japan, Spain and Columbia.