VIMTO, the soft fruit drink, celebrates its centenary this year. But did you know that the man who created the secret concoction 100 years ago was from Blackburn?

John Noel Nichols, born in 1883, was the son of a cotton yarn agent and governess, and was brought up at Bank House, the family’s rambling Jacobean mansion in Dukes Brow.

In 1908 he set up a business as a wholesale druggist and herb importer and spotted a gap in the market after the Licensing Act of that year cut the number of pubs in Britain by a third as part of a government attempt to remedy social ills and promote moral responsibility.

He created his unique drink by mixing grapes, blackcurrants, and raspberries with a blend of 23 other fruit essences, herbs, and spices, in a wooden barrel.

The result was a recipe which remains a closely-guarded secret to this day.

The drink was described as a tonic that provided vim and vigour – shortened later to vim-tonic and then to Vimto.

His success, further enhanced by the 1914 Defence of the Realm Act, which increased alcohol duties and severely curtailed pub opening hours, was immediate.

Not only did people flock to his Manchester premises to sample the quirky new product, especially on Sundays when herbalists selling non-alcoholic drinks filled an important social niche, but orders began to come in from around the area.

One Blackburn shopkeeper, a Mr Jackson wrote to Nichols in May 1916: “My customers have just raided me for Vimto, and would you please send me another lot as this is all done.”

Such success was perhaps unsurprising for Nichols, whose family had a notable history of entrepreneurship and self-improvement.

The youngest of three children, John Noel followed in his father’s footsteps by leaving the family business and striding out on his own.

His father John Cooke Nichols founded Nichol and Co, a large cotton manufacturing business, owning two mills in Canterbury Street and Fisher Street, Blackburn.

After working as a stockbroker’s clerk, he gained financial backing from his brother and brother-in-law to enter the herbal and medicinal trade, for which there was a large demand in working-class areas due to the high fees charged by doctors.

Since these beginnings, Vimto has grown into one of Britain’s most recognisable brands, selling in more than 65 countries, including the Indian subcontinent, where it was introduced in the 1920s and was instantly popular as a tonic for homesick soldiers from the North West Regiment.