While the Hentys' destiny lay in Australia, other Worthing residents looked towards a future in Canada.

In the 1830s, several hundred people from Heene, Tarring and Findon crossed the Atlantic to start a new life in the British colony.

The majority were poor farm labourers with no prospects so they had little to lose by leaving behind their homeland.

As with the Australian emigrants, it must have been an unnerving experience sailing the ocean to put down roots in a potentially hostile environment.

Today, there must be many thousands of Aussies and Canadians with Worthing blood in their veins.

One of those who set sail for Canada, on a ship called the Burrell, was Edward Longley, who left Heene in 1835.

Longley's first wife, Lucy, died in 1817. Four of her five children survived but apparently none of them accompanied their father and his second wife overseas.

In a letter sent to Heene, farmer William Mitchell, from Guelph, Upper Canada, in March 1836, Longley wrote: "In the first place, I will commence with our voyage, which was a very tedious one. I am happy to say the Captain behaved to us like a Briton. We fell in with a considerable number of icebergs, as big, I should suppose as the whole of the buildings on your farm; also shoals of porpoises from two to three hundred in number and from ten to twelve feet long.

"We also met a few small whales or grampuses. As we approached the banks of Newfoundland, the weather became very cold and foggy but as we approached America, the atmosphere became much warmer."

Longley travelled along the St Lawrence River to Quebec, the journey from Portsmouth having taken exactly seven weeks.

He described it as a pretty town but, after just a day, they moved on to a town called Prescott and then Hamilton, where he parted company with a companion by the name of George Poland, still a well-known name in Worthing.

Poland, a 40-year-old farm labourer described as "an industrious, hardworking man, handy with carpenter's tools and well-behaved", had left Heene with his second wife, Mary Grimwood, and their six children.

Longley said: "I took a waggon and went on to Guelph, about 30 miles, which cost me five dollars. Guelph is a delightful little town. It has only become a settlement within these last seven years.

"At that time there was not a single tree cut and now it contains three or four hundred houses, three churches, seven or eight stores and as many taverns. It also has a fayre twice a year and a market every Saturday.

"We can live much cheaper and better here than in England. The land in this township is selling at five dollars per acre, wild land.

"The climate here is very salubrious. The summer is generally warm, the winters, they tell me, are very cold.

"What I have seen of the country I like very much and would recommend all poor people that are able to work to come out and not be afraid of crossing the water.

"I would recommend all young single women to come out as quickly as they can and I will warrant they will soon meet with an object to fix their affections."

Longley later described his first winter, which was long, hard and bitter.

He wrote: "A tremendous fall of snow came on the 11th of November and we have not as yet seen the ground for more than four months. It has been a very severe winter. Even now (March 20, 1836), the snow is more than three feet deep and at times the cold has been so intense we could scarcely endure it and were obliged to keep up good fires day and night to keep us from being frozen."

Despite the hardship, Longley urged another Heene family, the Haylors, to follow him out as soon as possible, stating he was about to buy a farm.

We know that Edward and his wife, Jane, were still alive in 1851 because they are recorded in a census but after that the trail goes cold.

Perhaps some of our Canadian readers, descendants of the settlers, can help?

The Canadian connection is maintained in the names of streets on the West Durrington estate, including Alberta Road, Vancouver Road and Edmonton Road. There was also the Maple Leaf pub, near Tesco superstore, now renamed The Corner House.