Barrie Trinder's first major book appeared in 1969, and he has published regularly for the past 33 years. He achieved worldwide recognition with the publication of The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Industrial Archaeology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), the first international review of the discipline, which received a very high commendation for the Library Association's McColvin Medal, presented annually for reference books of outstanding quality.

A full bibliography appears below.

Barrie Trinder also has a long record of success with commissioned contributions to occasional publications, articles for popular historical magazines, introductions to catalogues, and pamphlets interpreting historic sites. He wrote most of the guides published by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum during its first 25 years.

At an early stage in his career Barrie Trinder was joint editor of The Pergamon General Historical Atlas (1970) and he has for many years taken an interest in historic maps, acting as consultant for other atlases, and writing the introductions to reprints. In recent years he has written introductions for more than 150 of the historical maps published from Consett by Alan Godfrey Maps of which details appear below.