William Swinden Barber FRIBA (29 March 1832 – 26 November 1908), also W. S. Barber or W. Swinden Barber,Journal of proceedings of the Royal Institute of British Architects. 1879/80 London, RIBA, 1880 p. 79 "William Swinden Barber (Halifax)" was an English Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts architect, specialising in modest but finely furnished Anglican churches, often with crenellated bell-towers. He was based in Brighouse and Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. At least 15 surviving examples of his work are Grade II listed buildings, including his 1875 design for the Victoria Cross at Akroydon, Halifax. An 1864 portrait by David Wilkie Wynfield depicts him in Romantic garb, holding a flower. He served in the Artists Rifles regiment in the 1860s alongside Wynfield and other contemporary artists.
Background
Ancestors Barber's great-great-grandfather was Joshua Barber.Ancestry.com: Joshua Barber Retrieved 12 February 2014 Joshua was the ancestor of three main branches of the West Yorkshire Barber family: at Southowram, Brighouse and Rastrick. William Swinden Barber was descended from the Southowram branch, and he produced work at Brighouse and Rastrick.Amcestry.com: the Barber family Retrieved 12 February 2014
Joshua's second child, baptised at Cleckheaton Independent Chapel, was John (1727–1810) who was William Swinden Barber's great-grandfather.Ancestry.com: John Barber Retrieved 12 February 2014 John married Sarah Schofield and their seventh child was William.A possible IGI record for Sarah Schofield is: Mrs Barber (1724–1820) died at Barker Royde aged 96
Barber's grandfather was William Barber (1768–1844), baptised at the same chapel.Death cert: March 1844, Barber, William, Halifax, 22/181 He arrived at Halifax from Mirfield around 1797 when he married Ann Charlton of Dewsbury. They had eight children, of whom John was the third.Ancestry.com: William Barber Retrieved 12 February 2014 They moved to Barker Royde at Southowram and lived in an eighteenth-century farmhouse called Barker Royde Farm; it incorporates a stone on which is carved "WB 1849."WB 1849 probably refers to William's son William, brother of William Swinden Barber's father, John. In the 1841 Census, William is living close by Barker Royde Farm, and is described as a card-maker, i.e. he was working at Barker Royde Mill. Close to the farmhouse, William built a four-storey mill called Barker Royde Mill, to make carding equipment and belting for the mechanised woollen industry.Ancestry.com: Barker Royde, Southowram Retrieved 2 February 2014 This mill was constructed during William Swinden Barber's childhood, when he would have witnessed and possibly been inspired by the works. The 1841 census finds William Barber at Barker Royde Farm, aged 75 with his wife Mary aged 70 and his daughter Sarah aged 30. William and his wife are described as being of independent means. They have two employees with them: an agricultural labourer and a servant.United Kingdom Census 1841: HO/107/1303/12/p.43. Note: Mary Barber may be William's second wife
Barber's father was John Barber (1800–1883).Death cert: Jun 1883, Barber, John, 82, Halifax, 9a/302 On 19 April 1831 he married Sally "Sarah" Swinden (1793–1881) at Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.IGI: GS.film.1542272, ref.D9/21.p, ID.178.n.532Death cert: Sarah Barber age 87, March 1881, Halifax, born 1794, 9a/299 William Swinden Barber was their only child. In 1841 he was at Valley Top at Southowram with his wife Sarah; both are listed in the Census as 40 years of age and John is described as independent. Ann Barber, aged 25, described as a servant, is with them, but their son William Swinden Barber is absent.United Kingdom Census 1841: HO/107/1303/12/p.15 John was a card-maker at Southowram at Barker Royde Mill with his father William: a joint mill-owner. In 1845 he was living at Slead Cottage, Chapel Lane, Southowram. The 1851 Census finds John, a card manufacturer aged 50, and his wife Sarah aged 55 living at 38 Lark Field, Hipperholme with Brighouse, with their son William Swinden Barber, an apprentice architect aged 19. Their house servant Ann Barber is still with them.United Kingdom Census 1851 HO/107/2297/p.378 John was a card-maker; that is, he made carding equipment for the wool industry at Lark Field and at Victoria Mill, Brighouse. In 1861 John and Sarah, aged 60 and 67, were still at Lark Field. They had two servants and John was still a card-maker employing twelve men and two boys.United Kingdom Census 1861: RG9/3726/p.6 In 1871 John was still at Lark Field with Sarah and two servants, but had retired.United Kingdom Census 1871: RG10/4386/p.6 John and his son William Swinden Barber bought Bonegate Hall (built 1635) at Brighouse.Ancestry.com: John Barber Retrieved 12 February 2014Bonegate Hall, Brighouse, is now occupied by a demolition company Retrieved 12 February 2014 In 1881 John a widower aged 80, now a retired card maker, was living in Hipperholme with Brighouse with one servant.United Kingdom Census 1881: RG11/54/p.19/PieceNo.4395
Barber and his wife
Barber was baptised on 29 March 1832 at Southowram.Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion: William Swinden Barber He married Anne "Anita" Byrne of Slead Hall, Brighouse (born at Stalybridge 1829, died 1909) on 10 October 1877 at Easton Grey, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire.Ancestry.com: William Swinden Barber Retrieved 12 February 2014Marriage cert: December 1877, Barber, William Swinden, And Byrne, Anne, Malmesbury, 5a/71York Herald 15 October 1877: Marriages She was the eldest daughter of Henry Byrne.London Standard 13 October 1877: Marriages. They were married by Rev. Richard Haking, rector of Easton Grey and Rev. John Hope, rector of Dodington Barber died in Portsmouth on 26 November 1908, aged 76 years, and Anita died aged 80 in 1909 at Pontefract; they had no descendants.Death cert: December 1908, Barber, William Swinden, 76, Portsmouth, 2b/284Death cert: March 1909, Barber, Ann, 80, Pontefract, 9c/90
Barber lived in London between 1857 and at least 1863. In 1860 he was living at 12 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London WC.1860 London Royal Blue Book 1860 (a London street directory) This is possibly the same address as Hanover Chambers, Buckingham Street, where he was living in 1861.1861–1866 Electoral registers for Southowram, West Yorkshire. He is listed as officially living in London but registered to vote in Southowram because he owns Slead Cottage, a freehold house, garden and stable.
In 1864, at the age of 32 years, he posed for a portrait (pictured above) by David Wilkie Wynfield, who was dressing his artist friends from St John's Wood in Romantic garb and photographing them. Barber's image was described as "charming, high camp" and one of the "most eccentric" of all Winfield's images at a National Portrait Gallery exhibition in 2000.Financial Times 5 February 2000 p.7: "Aesthetes snapped in fancy dress, Richard McClure on a compelling study of untapped genius and stolen thunder" by Richard McClureThe Observer, 30 January 2000, p.10: Arts, photography, "He liked men in period costume. And women out of shot" by Gaby Wood.
From 1869 to 1872 he was living at Stoney Royd, Southowram, Halifax, and still owned Slead Cottage.1869–1872 Electoral Registers for Southowram The 1871 Census finds Barber as an architect aged 39 living at 67 Stoney Royd, Southowram, with a widowed housekeeper Jane McIvor.United Kingdom Census 1871, RG/10/438B/90/p.15 From 1885 to 1897 he was registered as living at Farfield House, Shaw Hill, Halifax, and registered to vote at Wike as he owned freehold buildings and land at Wike Lane there.1885–1890 Electoral Registers for Wike With his father he bought Bonegate Hall, Brighouse, then he built Farfield for himself; It stands opposite the Stafford Arms in Huddersfield Road, Halifax, and has now been converted into apartments.Ancestry.com: Farfield, Halifax, built by JS Barber Retrieved 12 February 2014 In 1881 the head of the household at Farfield was Horace Melville Smith (1839–1915), a solicitor who became bankrupt in 1884 and escaped to Spain.Horace Melville Smith Retrieved 12 February 2014United Kingdom Census 1881: RG11/4406/p.24 In 1891 Barber was living at Farfield House aged 58 with his wife named as "Annie" aged 57 and two servants.United Kingdom Census 1891: RG12/127/p.20/PieceNo.3593 In 1891 he owned freehold shops and dwelling houses in Briggate, Brighouse, and by 1897 he owned Lower Wike Farm.1891–1897 Electoral Registers for Hipperholme-cum-Brighouse and Wike By 1898 he had moved to Letcombe, Southsea, Hampshire but still owned houses and shops in Brighouse.1898 Electoral Register for Brighouse By 1901 he was 68, Anne was 69 and they were living comfortably at 3 South Parade in Southsea. They had a cook, parlourmaid and two servants.United Kingdom Census 1901: RG13/990/p.10Barber does not appear in the 1841, 1861 or 1881 Census, although in 1861 a William Barber born in Halifax 1834, MA Worcester College Oxon and student of law at Lincolns Inn, is living at 17 Sand Downe Road North, St Mary Abbotts, Kensington, with his wife Elizabeth aged 26 and their daughter Charlotte who was born at Brighouse. United Kingdom Census 1861: RG/9/14/p.36 After Barber died at Southsea in 1908, he left £35,874 0s 3d. This was adjusted to £36,231 9s 5d.(equivalent to £ in ).England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations 1908: Probate) 16 June 1908
Professional life He became ARIBA in January 1860, and FRIBA on 17 November 1873.Springbank Arts: the architect William Swinden Barber Retrieved 18 February 2014 He had a long career working from Brighouse and Halifax, producing designs for building and renovation work from 1855 to 1898.
Artistic motivations
Neo-Gothic and Arts and Crafts artists working in Northern England in the last half of the 19th century were in some ways rebelling against the uncontrolled progress, noise, smoke, mechanisation and materialism of the Industrial Revolution. They looked back to a more spiritual Golden Age of Romantic fairy stories of magic, knights and castles, and revelled in hand-made artefacts.What is Arts and Crafts? An overview of the Arts and Crafts movement Retrieved 21 March 2014 Many of Barber's works reflect this, with their castellated towers and interiors of elegant carvings and jewel-coloured glass, all of which he designed and commissioned himself. However, all this had to be paid for, and clients' money was often ultimately sourced from the great mills and sweated labour of Victorian West Yorkshire; an example of this is Spring Hall, Halifax, designed by Barber and funded by Tom Holdsworth of John Holdsworth & Co. Ltd.John Holdsworth & Co. Ltd: images of mill and environs, with an image of Spring Hall, designed by Barber for Tom Holdsworth Retrieved 6 April 2014
Works in partnership He was in partnership as architect and surveyor at Hanover Chambers, Buckingham Street, London with Irish architect John Philpot Jones (1829–1873) from 1857 until 3 March 1859 when the partnership was dissolved due to bankruptcy or insolvency.Perry's Bankrupt & Insolvent Gazette 5 March 1859, col.183Dictionary of Irish Architects: John Philpot Jones Retrieved 17 February 2014Biographical dictionary of architects in Canada: John Philpot Jones Retrieved 17 February 2014 In 1859 Jones' plans for Bishop Auckland Town Hall were traced and adapted without his permission.Bishop Auckland Town Hall Retrieved 17 February 2014 Jones later worked with William Henry Crossland from 1868 to 1872 and from 1870 with Edward Salomons.Dictionary of Scottish architects: Crossland and Jones Retrieved 17 February 2014 Jones was involved in designs of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Newfoundland, of Holloway Sanatorium near Virginia Water, Surrey and of Manchester Reform Club.Manchester history: Reform Club Retrieved 17 February 2014