Bridgewater Street: old setts

Photograph revealing old setts on Bridgewater Street during road repairs.

A sett is a broadly rectangular stone used in paving roads and walkways.  They were widely used, particularly on steeper streets,  as setts provided horses' hooves with a better grip than smoother surfaces.  

Setts are often wrongly referred to as 'cobblestones'.  However, a sett is quarried or worked to a regular shape and usually made from granite whereas cobbles are generally small, naturally rounded rocks and less uniform in size.