This was one of four airfields in Hampshire to be given a decoy site in 1940, to deceive enemy aircraft into attacking a spurious target.

From September 1940, fake machine gun posts were added to Hurstbourne Tarrant.

[4] William Cobbett declared Hurstbourne Tarrent and its location as worth going miles to see with beauty at every turn.

The original central range was built in two storeys, and has 19th-century three-storey cross-wings at each end.

[6] The American Victorian/Edwardian artist Anna Lea Merritt lived in the village before her death in 1930.