For help surviving Drynuary, look to the past

On Rawtenstall's temperance bar; the birth of Vimto and a once-sober Wetherspoons

Dear Millers — happy new year! Goodbye to all that: to December, to getting uncomfortably full on third helpings and perhaps, for some of you… to alcohol. Maybe for a month, maybe for longer. Given the spirit of the season, we thought it was the perfect time for writer Ophira Gottlieb to dig deep into Manchester’s past and present relationship to temperance. Coming up: drinking with the ex-bassist of the La’s; a trip on the Rossendale Rover and a bar that’ll have you gasping for “a large glass of sparkling sarsaparilla”.

But before that, our news briefing.