Bedfont
Bedfont is a district within the London Borough of Hounslow in West London. It is 21 km west-southwest of Charing Cross and 2 miles from Heathrow Airport. It includes the area that is informally known as North Feltham along with the neighbourhood of Hatton.
Bedfont is mentioned within 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 were all held by William Fitz Other. Just before Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was built, just a couple of miles north of Bedfont, archaeologists found Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts, suggesting that people were living in and around Bedfont during these eras.
The populace of Bedfont stood at 12,701 in the 2011 census. The amount of inhabitants began to increase when Heathrow Airport was opened in 1946. This triggered increasing demand for local housing, specifically as the village of Heathrow was lost as well as 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 from the late fifteenth century. Fawns Manor is around the south side of the Green and dates back to the 16th century, now belonging to the British Airways Housing Association.