Bedfont
Bedfont is a district inside the London Borough of Hounslow in West London. It's 21 km west-southwest of Charing Cross and two miles from Heathrow Airport. It contains the area that's informally known as North Feltham and the neighbourhood of Hatton.
Bedfont is mentioned inside the Domesday Book as ‘Bedefunde’, which is believed to originate from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘Bedfunta’, which means ‘bed’s spring’. It states that the manors of Bedfont, Hatton and Stanmore had been all held by William Fitz Other. Before Heathrow’s Terminal Five was constructed, just a couple of miles north of Bedfont, archaeologists discovered Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts, suggesting that individuals were residing in and around Bedfont during these eras.
The population of Bedfont stood at 12,701 at the 2011 census. The number of inhabitants began to increase when Heathrow Airport was opened in 1946. This triggered escalating demand for local housing, specifically as the village of Heathrow was lost together with some of the Hamlet of Hatton.
Bedfont has two surviving manor houses: Pates Manor, once owned by the Page family, and Fawns Manor. Pates Manor is behind the Church of St Mary the Virgin and dates back to the late fifteenth century. Fawns Manor is on the south side of the Green and dates from the 16th century, now belonging to the British Airways Housing Association.
