IF YOU thought healthy eating and drinking is a modern trend pop along to Lancashire's last surviving Temperance Bar.

The 80 year-old business in nearby Rawtenstall's Bank Street - in the shadow of banks, building societies and a very modern chemist's shop - may be a relic of a bygone age but it is undergoing a modern revival.

Chris Law and Julie Roberts are the present owners. "Temperance bars grew out of a mixture of health and religion," explained Julie.

"The Temperance movement was fuelled mainly by Methodists who, from the early 19th century could see the damage being caused by alcohol."

To put the situation in perspective, water was simply not a good idea for drinking. The well off drank wine and the poor made do with beer or gin. Not for nothing was gin known as "mother's ruin" -- so much was consumed that it was literally destroying the working class.

Drinking houses were everywhere, and, when in 1840 the Government abolished taxes on alcohol, even more appeared.

It was against this background that the Methodists' Temperance Movement tried to get people to "sign the Pledge" -- to promise not to drink alcohol.

"The first meetings were held in public houses, which was hardly ideal! So something else was called for and that was the Temperance bar," said Julie. "Because it was a bar, serving drinks and with tables and chairs, it could open on Sundays and in the evenings.

"Temperance Bars became direct replacements for pubs, people went in with friends for a drink and a chat."

Of course a Temperance Bar did need drinks to serve and it was here that many old recipes were dug out.

"Sarsaparilla, Cream Soda, Blood Tonic and Dandelion and Burdock were established drinks that already had healthy connotations," said Julie. "Most of these are still popular today."

Today, Julie and Chris' establishment is still a bar, with tables and chairs, but they do sell a lot of health foods and the name is now "Herbal Health".

Once part of a chain of 12 in Lancashire, owned by the Fitzpatrick family, it is now the only one left.

"Many people could not afford to go to the doctor they would come into the Temperance bar for a 'healthy' drink.

"You could have a bottle of 'medicine' made up behind the bar.

"The popularity of modern health foods and the increased interest in homeopathy has meant another boost for Herbal Health.

"We are not poo-poohing modern medicine but there is no doubt that a lot of the traditional remedies do work," she added.

An afternoon shopping, going to the bank and doing a few errands is not complete for many families without popping in to the Temperance bar for a refreshing glass of Sarsaparilla.