Glaxo worker Roy Dawson rode off with top prize in the latest company awards for cost-saving suggestions in late December 1991.

Roy, from the engineering department, won £640 for finding a new kind of filter for air conditioning units.

An Ulverston Glaxo spokesperson said: "It is perhaps the largest ever award made in the engineering department."

Mr Dawson promised his three children a monitor to go with a computer he bought them for Christmas.

Cephalosporins operator Stephen Lewis earned £430 for a solvent saving idea.

He pointed out that a pipeline in the cefuroxime plant could be effectively blown clear with nitrogen, rather than washed with solvent.

Mr Lewis had already received a £100 interim payment for the idea.

Janet Storey, from quality assurance, proposed an idea which both saved money and helped the environment.

She suggested that hydrogen sulphide gas, used in an analytical test, should be bought in cylinders, instead of being generated in the laboratory. Her idea earned her an award of £150.

Also in 1991, for the second time in four years, Glaxochem's Ulverston factory had scooped the top industrial award in the Cumbria in Bloom competition.

Factory gardeners Frank Billingham and Arthur Messenger had repaired the old factory greenhouse and raised thousands of bedding plants from seed.

Accepting the award, factory manager Dr Tony Sherrard said he was pleased the gardeners' efforts had been rewarded.

The factory's gardens had been a picture and the displays in the offices and conference facilities superb.

There were an example of the way that Glaxochem sought to ensure the right working environment for staff and of the company's continued commitment to the environment.

Mark Andrews, organiser of Cumbria in Bloom, praised Glaxochem for playing its part in preserving the beauties of Cumbria.

Also present were Cllr Stan Lewis, chair of South Lakeland District Council, and Ulverston town clerk Alan McArthur.