The Sign
The sign was erected in 2014 and made by Metal Hanging Signs out of galvanised steel. The top of the sign shows a Stackie barge, possibly the 'Cygnet' inside the roundel. Below this is the village name meaning. The main panel shows the church of St Mary set in a rural setting.

The Name and Population
The population was 287 at the 2011 census. It was called Herchesteda in the Domesday Book. The name means "Herca's place". from Old English. The Angles and the Saxons came first across the North Sea and it is from them that the village got its present name, although it has been spelt differently down the centuries, originally Herca’s Place and then Herchestedd, Herchestede, Harkstede and Harkstead.

Other Points of Interest
Large areas of the civil parish are classified as Scheduled Monuments due to the presence of ring ditches, post-medieval field boundaries and later prehistoric or Roman field systems.

The church of St Mary has Norman windows and a Norman blocked doorway.

In the late 1800s Stackie Barges were a familiar sight around Harkstead. Tied up at Johnny-All-Alone Quay they were filled with mangolds in the hold and also straw and hay on deck (hence the name “Stackie”).