Trowse – Name Origin

Since a few of our walks have cut through Trowse, not least this one, here’s something about the origins of the village name.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary comments on the origins:

Trowse Newton, Norfolk. Treus Newtona in Domesday Book, Trous in 1254 and Trowes cum Newtone in 1316. Comes from Scandinavian tre-hus, or wooden house.

The village is more formally known as Trowse with Newton and back in the tenth century, it was the case that Newton was the more important manner, and Trowse the attached settlement. There are some differing views about this, some people feel that it is ‘tree-house’ because the properties were once built in a wet area and needed to be raised.

The argument on Wikipedia is that it’s named after a gate that could be lifted up and down, and they make some link to the word trousers. Personally, I think that sounds not inconsiderably fanciful. I’m with the settlement being named after the wooden houses that were located here in the tenth century, nothing to do with houses being built on stilts or with things being lifted up and down.