A church is recorded in Harkstead in the Domesday survey.
Church of St Mary. Consists of chancel, N vestry, nave, S aisle, porch and W tower. Details in (S1)(S2).
2011: A programme of work at the church included provision of a new floor in the south aisle. In order to facilitate this, the existing floor was removed and the underlying soil, almost certainly grave fill, was reduced to the project formation level. At the eastern end of the south aisle two ledger stones were revealed bedded directly on the earth with no evidence for underlying formal tombs. One of the stones, that commemorating Richard Tyler junior who died in 1696, was already broken, but its component parts were laid in their correct positions. The second, which commemorated another Richard Tyler who died in 1674, presumably the father or another close relative of Richard Tyler junior, was intact. Both stones comprised a hard, very dark grey limestone (S3).