Hartest is a small village and civil parish in the Babergh district of the English county of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. It is located halfway between

Bury St. Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: . P ...

and Sudbury on the B1066 road in the Glem valley.

Brockley Brockley is a district and an wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham south-east of Charing Cross. It has been named the best area of London to live in. It is an area rich in Vi ...

is two miles north. The village of Hartest dates back to before 1086 and features in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. The name 'Hartest' is thought to mean either 'Stag Hill' or 'Stag Wood'. It is claimed that there are no other villages, towns or cities in the world of the same name. The village is centred on the large

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

, fringed by an array of brightly coloured cottages, the village hall or institute, the medieval All Saints church and the Crown

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, formerly Hartest Hall the local landowner's seat. There is an annual fete held on the village green at the end of August each year. Running east of the village centre is Hartest Hill, the steepest in Suffolk. Former Special Envoy for the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

and

Islamic Jihad Organization The Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO; (OJI); ) was a Lebanese Shia Muslims, Lebanese Shia militia known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War. The organization, advocating for the withdrawal of all Americans from Leba ...

hostage,

Terry Waite Sir Terence Hardy Waite (born 31 May 1939) is a British human rights activist and author. Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of ...

lives in the village.

Local Features and Landmarks

On the north side of the village green stands a large boulder named the 'Hartest Stone'. This boulder, thought to have been placed on that spot in the early 18th century, has attracted speculation over its origins. One theory is that the boulder was moved by sled from the nearby Somerton Hill to celebrate the

Peace of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaty, peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vac ...

and the Duke of Marlborough's victories in the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

. Another theory suggests the boulder was moved (for the same reasons) from Somerton Common. A third theory suggests the boulder was found in a clay pit owned by one Mr Carter, who had the stone moved to its current location. Local traditions say that the boulder will turn over at the stroke of midnight and sitting on the boulder at midnight will bring a wife or good fortune. Hartest Wood stands on the outskirts of Hartest. The wood was planted in 1999 as part of the Woodland Trust's 'Woods on your doorstep' scheme to commemorate the new millennium. The wood contains 187 oak trees, representing every household in Hartest at the time. At the centre of the woods an art installation designed by Geoffrey Clarke called 'The Gift' can be found. The village pub, The Crown (previously 'the Crown Inn') stands on the South side of the green. The Crown is a sixteenth century Grade II Listed building and was previously used as a Moot Hall for the village and surrounding area.

References

External links

Parish Council website
Villages in Suffolk Babergh District Civil parishes in Suffolk {{suffolk-geo-stub