Bedfont
Bedfont is a district within the London Borough of Hounslow in West London. It's 21 km west-southwest of Charing Cross and 2 miles from Heathrow Airport. It includes the area which is informally known as North Feltham along with the neighbourhood of Hatton.
Bedfont is described within the Domesday Book as ‘Bedefunde’, which is believed to derive 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. Just before Heathrow’s Terminal Five was constructed, just a few miles north of Bedfont, archaeologists found Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts, suggesting that individuals had been residing in and around Bedfont over these eras.
The populace of Bedfont stood at 12,701 at the 2011 census. The number of inhabitants started to rise when Heathrow Airport was opened in 1946. This triggered rising demand for local housing, particularly as the village of Heathrow was lost along with part 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 around the south side of the Green and dates back to the sixteenth century, now belonging to the British Airways Housing Association.