Adoquin

A sett, usually referred to in the plural and known in some places as a Belgian block, is a broadly rectangular quarried stone used for paving roads. Formerly in widespread use, particularly on steeper streets because setts provided horses’ hooves with better grip than a smooth surface, they are now encountered rather as decorative stone paving in landscape architecture. Setts are often inaccurately referred to as “cobbles”: a sett is distinct from a cobblestone in that it is quarried or worked to a regular shape, whereas the latter is generally a small, naturally-rounded rock.
Places paved with setts include many streets in Rome and elsewhere in Italy (where blocks are called sampietrini or bolognini), since the technique was first used by Romans, in Aberdeen (Scotland), much of Edinburgh’s Old Town and New Town, and Red Square in Moscow. Silloth on Solway, the seaside town in Cumbria, still has the setts (originally laid in the 19th century) on Eden St and the seafront Criffel Street. Streets paved with setts feature in cycling competitions including the “Tour of Britain” which visited Silloth on Solway in 2015. Streets in Belgian towns are historically layered with Belgian blocks, both in the centre areas and the outer residential neighbourhoods. However, in recent years, many of them have been progressively replaced by asphalt in order to reduce car noise and improve conditions for commuter cycling. Many streets and roads in Belgium and remote country routes just over the border in northern France are still dominated by setts.