Barnsley, Arthur Ernest 1863 - 1926

Arthur Ernest Barnsley [commonly known as Ernest Barnsley] was born the son of Edward Barnsley (1828-1881), a builder and decorator, in Birmingham, England on 17 February 1863. He was articled to Joseph Lancaster Ball (1852-1933) in Birmingham for over four years and remained with him as an assistant for a further eighteen months. He also attended Birmingham School of Art, as did his brother, Sidney Howard Barnsley (1865-1926).  

In 1885 the two brothers moved to London. Ernest Barnsley worked as an assistant to William Howard Seth-Smith (1858-1928) and in the office of John Dando Sedding (1838-1891), where he met Ernest Gimson (1864-1919).  He qualified as an architect in 1886 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1887.  

In early 1887 he left Sedding's office and made a studied tour of Italy and France, accompanied by Gimson.  On his return he set up his own architectural practice in Birmingham.

In late 1890 or early 1891, with brother Sidney, Gimson, Mervyn Macartney Reginald Blomfield, and Stephen Webb, he set up Kenton & Co., a cabinet-making workshop in London, to make furniture to their designs.  The enterprise was short-lived and closed down in 1892.  

In 1893 Sidney Barnsley and Gimson moved to Ewen, near Cirencester where they set up a craft workshop in at Pinbury Park, a mediaeval manor house in Gloucestershire, The following year they were joined by Ernest Barnsley. At the workshop the Barnsleys  made furniture and Gimson made furniture and decorative plasterwork.  In 1900 Ernest Barnsley and Gimson formed a separate partnership and in 1902 set up a furniture workshop in Daneway House, near Sapperton in Gloucestershire.  Sometime between 1902 and 1909, a disagreement arose between Gimson and Ernest Barnsley and they went their separate ways.   Thereafter, Ernest Barnsley designed no more furniture and concentrated on his architectural work.

Ernest Barnsley's last significant architectural project was the building of Rodmarton Manor in Rodemarton, south of Cirencester.  The project was commissioned by Claud Biddulph, a banker, in 1909 and the interior was furnished to designs by Ernest and Sidney Barnsley and others. The house was completed in the late 1920s, after Ernest Barnsley's death.  He died in Sapperton on 6 January 1926

A biographical file on Arthur Ernest Barnsley is available on request at the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London