About Us

Barbour EHS provides a simplified, all-in-one solution to help your organisation remain compliant with its diverse range of responsibilities.

The Barbour Story

Since 1957, Barbour EHS has grown into the UK’s leading information service for health & safety, environment and facilities management. Over the past 60+ years, we’ve built an unmatched library of trusted information and supporting resources designed to simplify compliance for organisations of all sizes.

Our mission is simple: Save you time, protect your people, and empower your operations by bridging the gap between legislation and practical action.

It all begins in 1941...

Whilst Barbour (originally known as Barbour Index) was officially formed in 1957, it has much earlier beginnings in a company called Architects Classifile, which started as early as 1941 in order to answer the desperate need for information faced by wartime architects and engineers in London.

1957

Bobby Barbour formed a company called Architects Specifile. The company was based on collecting manufacturers’ trade catalogues and storing them in a filing cabinet. The catalogues were delivered in Central London by ladies on bicycles who visited the architects.

1958

In 1958, Patrick Barbour (Bobby’s brother) joined the company for two years, which is when Barbour Index was formed. Shortly after this, Bobby left the company and Patrick took over.

1960s

By the mid 1960s, the bicycles had been replaced by red minis which were driven by young workers who were employed to maintain the tailor-made Barbour Index Product Library services.

1970s

Microfiche was introduced in the late 1970s to provide comprehensive technical and product information.

1987

Through the next two decades, Barbour Index developed into the principal supplier of technical and manufacturers’ product data to the country’s construction industry.

It floated on the Stock Exchange in 1987. The Health and Safety Microfile was launched in 1980, followed by Environmental Health, Fire and Safety, Food safety, Environmental, Water and Trading Standards.

1997

In 1997, Health & Safety Professional was launched, followed by Food Safety Professional, Environmental Professional and Trading Standards Professional – firstly as a CD-based service, followed shortly by an online product that has grown into the service offered by Barbour today.

2022

In 2022, Barbour EHS joined the Marlowe Plc family, a leader in safety and regulatory compliance services and software. Sitting in the Marlowe Software, Risk and Compliance division, we work alongside our sister companies, health & safety risk management consultancy William Martin and CAFM specialist Elogs.

2023

In 2022, we were delighted to welcome Cedrec Information Systems to the Marlowe family. Headquartered in Gateshead and established in 1994, Cedrec provides data, information and legislative insights to over 1,000 customers who subscribed to its SaaS platform to manage their environmental, energy, planning and health & safety compliance.

Cedrec was brought under the Barbour brand in September 2023, strengthening our offering and creating a powerhouse in the industry by:

Increasing our expertise in environment and energy legislation/ISO 14001 and 50001
Bringing you consolidated legislation to help you master complex legislation
Widening our scope to include planning legislation
Providing an established and experienced Consultancy service, giving clients hands-on support to ensure compliance by building bespoke legal registers and aspects and impacts registers