In November 1985, The Mail reported that Tim Melville, 39, had been appointed as the finance director of Ulvertech Limited at Ulverston.

Under the headline 'Tim now finance chief', The Mail stated that Mr Melville had previously been a partner in F M Lawrenson and Company, accountants, of Duke Street, Barrow, and a non-executive director of Ulvertech.

Born and educated in Cumbria he had qualified as a chartered accountant in Manchester, later specialising in taxation and qualifying as a Fellow of the Institute of Taxation.

In 1993 champagne corks were popping at an Ulverston factory after news of a successful management buy-out, which had saved around 20 jobs.

Three members of the senior management team at MSI-Ulvertech had announced the success of their buy-out bid from their multi-national parent company.

Bob Bruce, director and general manager, Steve Milward, sales and marketing manager and Gordon Fletcher, production manager, had launched their bid to save the 14-year-old firm when M International announced it was pulling out to concentrate on defence work.

The new company would be known as Hyspec Systems Ltd and would specialise in sonar-based systems for use in the offshore industry.

In 1994 The Mail reported that Ulverston electronics firm Hyspec Systems had loaned a mechanical and electronic fibreglass 'monster pike' to the Low Wood Waterski Centre between Ambleside and Windermere.

The pike, which had been loaned to centre manager Tim Berry, would become a feature attraction at the centre.

The model was a copy of the original pike that was to have been used in the never-completed 1982 film, The Pike, starring Joan Collins and filmed at Windermere.

After the plug was pulled on the film, the pike spent two years entertaining people at a robotics exhibition in Japan.

Now that the original was back, Hyspec, formerly Ulvertech, loaned the fibreglass version to Low Wood.