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. 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. 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. In 1891 Barber was living at Farfield House aged 58 with his wife named as "Annie" aged 57 and two servants. In 1891 he owned freehold shops and dwelling houses in Briggate, Brighouse, and by 1897 he owned Lower Wike Farm. By 1898 he had moved to Letcombe, Southsea, Hampshire but still owned houses and shops in 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. After Barber died at Southsea in 1908, he left £35,874 0s 3d. This was adjusted to £36,231 9s 5d.(equivalent to £ in ). Professional life He became ARIBA in January 1860, and FRIBA on 17 November 1873. 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. 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. 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