Bedfont is a district inside the London Borough of Hounslow in West London. It is 21 km west-southwest of Charing Cross and two miles from Heathrow Airport. It consists of the area that is informally called North Feltham plus the neighbourhood of Hatton.
Bedfont is referenced 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. Just before Heathrow’s Terminal Five was built, just a couple of miles north of Bedfont, archaeologists discovered Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts, suggesting that individuals were living in and around Bedfont over these periods.
The populace of Bedfont stood at 12,701 in the 2011 census. The number of inhabitants started to increase when Heathrow Airport was opened in 1946. This brought on growing demand for local housing, especially as the village of Heathrow was lost and also 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 back to 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.