Congratulations to the permanent Star Wars exhibition at Pembroke Dock in Wales which has been nominated for the Project of the Year at the National Lottery Awards 2022.
The shipbuilders of Pembroke Dock launched their first boat out of this small town in West Wales in 1816 and continued building naval vessels for more than 100 years. The site was eventually taken over by the Royal Air Force to build flying boats.
But before their long history of constructing major craft came to a close, the shipbuilders of Pembroke dock were commissioned to build a very special vessel – a full-size version of the iconic Star Wars starship, The Millennium Falcon, in 1979.
Chosen because they had the expertise and the room for such an ambitious undertaking, the workers were sworn to secrecy, with the project even being given a special codename: ‘Magic Roundabout’.
Now a permanent exhibition in the Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre, it tells the story of how the iconic 23-tonne prop was built out of steel and marine plywood in the hangar over three months. The exhibition features photographs, previously unseen footage, testimonies from the shipbuilders and a detailed model showing the various stages of construction.
You can vote for the project here.
