" Harkstead is a village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. The village is located on the northern bank of the River Stour estuary at Holbrook Bay, and is situated on the Shotley peninsula, around 7 miles (11 km) south of Ipswich. It is part of Babergh local government district."

" People have been living in Harkstead for many thousands of years. Evidence of Stone Age occupation is known from the flint axes found, one near the stream which forms the boundary between Harkstead and Erwarton and the other near Palace Quay. About 5000 years ago, in the Bronze Age , the peninsula was heavily populated and there is evidence of occupation of land bordering both the rivers. Round barrows with ring ditches were clearly visible at one time but continuous ploughing has flattened them. They are now only visible from aerial photographs of crop markings. In turn the Bronze Age was superseded by Iron. By the end of the last Millennium BC, the people of this last late Iron Age were using coins and pottery, which are still being discovered in the peninsula plough soil."