Bedfont
Bedfont is a district inside the London Borough of Hounslow in West London. It's 13 miles west-southwest of Charing Cross and 2 miles from Heathrow Airport. It includes the area that's informally known as North Feltham plus the neighbourhood of Hatton.
Bedfont is described 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. Before Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was constructed, just a few miles north of Bedfont, archaeologists discovered Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts, suggesting that individuals had been residing in and around Bedfont during these periods.
The populace 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 brought on growing demand for neighbourhood housing, especially as the village of Heathrow was lost as well as a 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 15th 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.
