Bird’s Eye View Of High Street Setts Being Relaid

Published on: 22 Feb, 2016
Updated on: 26 Feb, 2016

Here’s a view looking down from the first floor of a shop in Guildford High Street showing the relaying of the granite setts.

The granite setts in Guildford High Street being relaid, as seen from the first floor window of a shop.

The picture shows a section of the road in which the base / foundation has been dug out and then relaid and the setts being put back into position.

The work is costing about £1 million, and Surrey County Council has contracted building firm Keir to undertake the work.

Checking the newly laid setts are properly level.

It is scheduled to finish on June 30.

The work will be completed in sections, cordoned off, to allow pedestrian access to shops and businesses at all times.

Specialist stone masons are undertaking the work and the entire drainage system is also being replaced.

The existing setts are being recycled. As can be seen from this angle they are much deeper than might be supposed from their surface area.

While the work continues, Guildford’s Farmers’ Market, that takes place on the first Tuesday of the month, will be held in the Leapale Road surface car park.

The High Street is open to traffic outside pedestrian times as at present.

Where work is taking place the carriageway will be narrowed and parking will be temporarily prohibited.

Responses to Bird’s Eye View Of High Street Setts Being Relaid

Marian Fripp Reply

February 23, 2016 at 9:52 am

I did send the council an email asking if I could buy one of the setts which were not suitable for relaying but I didn’t get a reply!

Would have been a nice memento.
Aubrey Leahy Reply

February 28, 2016 at 11:28 pm

A million quid. Blimey. There used to be a chap who, every Sunday, turned some of the setts.

He started at the top by Abbot’s Hospital and worked his way down to the river, then went back up to the top and started again.

I cannot be certain but I believe he was paid five shillings. Which was then spent on beer.

Maybe David Rose or one of your readers knows who this was.

[David Rose adds: I don’t know his name, but I have a picture of repairs being done to the setts and I will publish it at a later date.]
Fred Smith Reply

February 29, 2016 at 12:17 pm

It’s good to see the sets being relayed correctly at last.

I remember as a child in the late 1940s and 50s seeing this being carried out on a Sunday morning by Guildford Borough Council workmen.

The foreman used to wear a top hat as he did this.

Does anyone else remember that I wonder? I bet Bernard Parke does.
Anna-Marie Davis Reply

March 2, 2016 at 3:17 pm

Glad to see some spirit levels in use, unlike the North Street and Waitrose attempts at paving.