A monumental stonemason; born in London, he moved to Norwich in 1855 to work on the new public library. From 1857 to 1859 he carved a set of the apostles for the high presbytery at the east end of Norwich Cathedral. Barrett’s other architectural sculpture includes two ornamental pediments in Norwich, the first for T.D. Barry’s Corn Exchange (1861; building demolished in 1964; pediment now in a private garden in Hethersett, Norfolk), the second for Philip Hardwick’s Crown Bank (1866); allegorical figures and portrait roundels for Bellamy and Hardy’s Town Hall, Ipswich (1868); and ornamental keystones for Bottle and Olley’s Gurney’s Bank, Framlingham, Suffolk (1872). In addition, he carved the memorial to the ship-wrecked barque, ‘Young England’, in St Mary’s churchyard, Happisburgh, Norfolk (1875), and a headstone for Reginald Wilson in the churchyard of Holy Trinity, Ingham, also Norfolk. His workyard is listed at 6 Heigham Terrace, Dereham Road, Norwich, in White’s History Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk (London, 1882).
Bibliography: G.N. Barrett, ‘Barnabas Barrett, 1810–1883; Norwich Monumental Mason’, Norfolk Archaeology, 43.3, 2000, pp. 503–06; R. Cocke, Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool, 2013, pp. xi, xx, 7, 37–38, 158, 213–14.
Richard Cocke, 2013; revised, Terry Cavanagh, April 2025