{"id":566469,"date":"2026-05-04T23:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566469\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T23:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:22:14","slug":"was-star-wars-millennium-falcon-based-on-the-design-of-a-welsh-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566469\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon based on the design of a Welsh village?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The layout of Oakdale village which does bear a striking resemblance to the Millennium Falcon (Google Earth)<\/p>\n

David Owens<\/p>\n

Today is May the 4th and as all knowledgeable sci-fans are aware it\u2019s also known as Star Wars Day, when it\u2019s obligatory to say May the fourth be with you.<\/p>\n

Every year the day throws up some surprising oddities, none more so than a post that has since gone viral on a local community group on Facebook.<\/p>\n

There, one poster made the rather lavish claim that the Star Wars Millennium Falcon was based on Oakdale in Caerphilly County Borough.<\/p>\n

However, once you look at the image posted by Facebook user Ralph McPhlugg comparing the Millennium Falcon to the layout of Oakdale village, it does make you wonder because once you see it, you can\u2019t unsee it.<\/p>\n

Ralph wrote: \u201cProof that the Millennium Falcon was based on Oakdale Village in Wales. Oakdale has truly earned it\u2019s rightful place in the fight against the Evil Empire. May The Fourth Be With You.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, the history of the Millennium Falcon has its inception and creation here in Wales, so maybe there is something in it after all.<\/p>\n

A life-sized model of the starship was famously created in Pembroke Dock in 1979 for the Oscar-winning film The Empire Strikes Back.<\/p>\n

Craftsmen from a local engineering firm built the model \u2013 the first of its type ever constructed, in the Western Hangar \u2013 a former RAF aircraft hangar in the town\u2019s dockyard.<\/p>\n

The Millennium Falcon was the last ship built in the Royal Pembroke Dockyard.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Millennium Falcon in Pembroke Dock<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the worst kept secret in Pembroke Dock \u2013 everybody in the town knew they were building a UFO in the hangar and that period of time and that story is an important part of the town\u2019s living memory\u201d recalled Gareth Mills, a trustee of the Pembroke Dock Heritage Trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge Lucas set a new standard in both storytelling and film making with Star Wars and the story of the Millennium Falcon being built in Pembroke Dock was big news at the time. The whole world knew about it, then the story faded into legend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of a town in West Wales making a significant contribution to this incredible story by being the place where one of the most iconic starships in science fiction history was built, creates a mixture of disbelief, awe and pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support our Nation today<\/p>\n

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an
\n independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by
\n the people of Wales.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The layout of Oakdale village which does bear a striking resemblance to the Millennium Falcon (Google Earth) David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-566469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}