Trowse is one of a small family of model villages in Great Britain. As Bournville is to Birmingham, Port Sunlight to Liverpool, so Trowse is to Norwich.
Trowse was created (or more accurately expanded) by the Colman family during the 1800s for workers at Colman's mustard factory. The family still owns much of the surrounding land. It is also home to another great, old-established Norfolk family business - May Gurney - a major civil engineering and construction company.
The parish is in the deanery of Brooke and the archdeaconry of Norfolk.
The parish church is a small flint building, in the Perpendicular style, comprising a chancel, nave, and square tower with a bell and a clock; the chancel was restored in 1879. The church is dedicated to St Andrew.
The parish formed part of the Henstead Hundred, until 1834 when the Hundred expanded to become the Henstead Union. Source: Kelly's Directory 1883 and 1927.
The name Trowse derives from the old English/Scottish word trouse, for a grating of wood or iron which could be raised or lowered (like a gate) to allow water out of a dam into a mill race (the original village grew up round the local water mill - now Trowse Millgate).
Trouse (or Trews north of the border) was also the slang name for the leggings warn by Scots (since they too went up and down like a gate to allow water out) - and hence the word Trouser. Source: Kelly's Directory 1883, Oxford companion to place names, English Gazetteer and others.