[1][2] After graduating from Prince Henry's Grammar School, he proceeded to work with his grandfather as a bank assistant, and enjoyed an active middle-class social life marked by opera performances, freemasonry, and holidays throughout Europe.
[2] His research interests were wide-ranging, but centred mainly on the Vale of Evesham, church and secular architecture, and the history of Worcestershire's gentry families.
[4] Barnard gained a significant reputation for his work with historic documents, and led a number of projects cataloguing and transcribing medieval and early modern records held by private families, churches, and other institutions.
[1] During the 1920s he undertook extensive work on the collection of Worcestershire documents, artefacts, and illustrations bequeathed to the Society of Antiquaries by the Bewdley antiquarian Peter Prattinton (1776-1840), publishing the first modern catalogue in 1931.
[1][8] He played an important early role in raising awareness of the threats to historic documents, and persuaded the owners of several private collections to loan them to public record offices.