Let us step into our time machine and set the controls for 1656 and the entrance to Trowse Millgate near where Colmans goods entrances now.

Where the present Social Services offices are stands a pub called The Swanne.  Fast forward a few years and we see its name changing to The Pineapple, The Drovers, The Pineapple and Drovers, and finally back to The Pineapple! Various buildings being erected and demolished over the years.

When The Pineapple closed in 1985 the stained glass windows (featuring pineapples) were purchased by Colin Keatley who still owns them and presently runs The Fat Cat in West End Street, Norwich.

Also in Trowse Millgate at various times with the following pubs:

• The Angel (later called The Chequers)
• The Rose and Crown (later called The Jolly Millers)
• The Railway Tavern (later called The Railway Inn)
• The Britannia

We set the controls for Trowse Newton and travelled to the building presently occupied by May Gurney by the bridge. Here we find a pub which was first called The Carpenters Arms then The Harvey Arms. Then it was The Oak, finishing up as The Royal Oak and closing in 1967.

We will now direct our time machine down Whitlingham Lane to The Trowse Eye (now Hythe Cottage) situated between Yare Cottage and Chestnut Cottage. This had quite a reputation for practises that would now be called “having a lock in” and closed in the 1870’s.

Continuing to the far end of Whitlingham Lane we come to a pub called The White House (still in existence as a private house). The proprietor operated a ferry across the river to Thorpe and it was the stopping off point for pleasure boats to visit the famous Whitlingham Caves, The Gardens, and experience the “remarkable echo” in the small valley.

It was reported in a Victorian Kelly’s Directory that the original pub had been destroyed by fire but in fact it was only the thatched roof.

We will now set the controls to the Trowse Common where we will find The White Horse pub (previously known as The White Hart) standing on the actual common. Across the road where the present White Horse stands we notice a pub called The Lime Kiln. In later years there will be another Lime Kiln pub standing where the present private residence Crown House is situated in Kirby Road.

We now set the controls to the 1760s and in the centre of Trowse at this time there were the following four pubs:

• The Crown (no connection with present Crown Point Tavern) it changes its name to The Rose and Crown and then back to The Crown
• The French Horn
• The Prince of Wales
• The White Swan

Locations of these are not known.

Controls set for 1872 and, as we travel the next 30 years, we see the new owner of Trowse, Jeremiah Colman, close several of the pubs and replace them, in entertainment terms with something he considered “more wholesome”, the bowling green at the rear of the Manor Rooms.

Fast forward to 2004 to the excellent two pubs that remain, The White Horse, opposite the common, and The Crown Point Tavern built in 1854 at the entrance to Kirby Road.