 Between the years 1840 and 1900 2,467 people emigrated to Canada and 248 to the United States aboard ships from Bideford.In 1847 a horse-drawn omnibus taking people to a fair in Torrington fell off Bideford Quay into the River Torridge, and eight people were drowned.The book "Kingsley's County" put the expansion and growth of Bideford down to the publication of Charles Kingsley's romance "Westward Ho!"