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.

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.

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.

By the mid 1960s, the bicycles had been replaced by red minis which were driven by young workers who were employed to maintain the tailor-made Barbour Index Product Library services.

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

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.

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.

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.

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