The Stone Quarry Inn was situated on the corner of Port Rd and Quarry Rd in Duston, Northampton. The shop, originally called the Stone Quarry, was built in 1862 and was opened as a beer house run by John Henry and William Smith. It was known as ‘Smith’s’ beer house for its first twenty years, finally becoming the Stone Quarry in 1882. Lucy, William’s widow, took over the licence in 1885 and appointed a number of landlords to run the pub in her name.
In 1914, the Licencing Authority decided that having three pubs (the Hare & Hounds and Rifle Butt were the other two) in such close proximity were too many as they calculated that there was one pub for every 110 houses in the area. As the Stone Quarry did the least trade, that was the one that had its licence withdrawn. £545 compensation was paid out and it ceased trading on the 15th August 1914.
It had since 1902, been trading with part of the building being used as a grocery shop/post office and that continued to trade for over a century, closing down in 2016. It opened it’s doors once more in February 2018 as Smith’s barber shop.
