Photo: plaque from Barbour Park, Bridge Street/Sloan Street

Photo: plaque from Barbour Park, Bridge Street/Sloan Street

The Barbour family left a  rich legacy to Lisburn, including the Barbour Playground.  Given by Anna Edwards Barbour, a philanthropist and husband of Harold Barbour, she passed on the opportunity for a formal opening in 1929, so the children could play as early as possible.

A plaque was placed at the front of the playground it read: “And the child went forth, and what he saw he became”, quoting a lesser-known poem, There was a Child Went Forth, by the American poet Walt Whitman (1885). Anna Edwards Barbour was, of course, born in the U.S.