The Sign
The sign was erected in 1990, celebrating 1000 years of the village and can be found at the top corner of the village green on the main street through the village. The sign depicts a stag or hart on top of the sign representing the village name with a large boulder behind it, which is a glacial erratic said to be found in a field at nearby Somerton and dragged to its present site to commemorate the end of the war of Spanish Succession in 1713.

The Name and Population
The name means "Wooded hill frequented by harts or stags" from Old English. It was called Hertest from 1042-66 and Herte(r)st in 1086. The population was 446 at the 2011 census.

Other Points of Interest
It is claimed that there are no other villages, towns or cities in the world of the same name of Hartest.

Hartest Hill is said to be the steepest in Suffolk.

Terry Waite, the former envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury lives here.

The church is dedicated to All Saints.