FOLLOWING on from the Review's exclusive lead story about the arrival of the Star Wars production team at Puzzlewood, by Friday the extensive camp they had built had vanished.

Citing "days and days of great weather" a security guard told the Review that the crew and stars of the film, entitled Star Wars Episode VII, had "fairly rattled through" their production schedule", to finish exactly on time.

International interest in the story of the notoriously secretive filming of any Star Wars movie, brought press photographers and film crew crowding into Clearwell and Coleford last week – all seeking coverage of the elusive team who create the films.

But they were denied access to the Puzzlewood site, and attempts to try and get into the wood via the back of the venue were foiled by numbers of security guards, posted as sentries.

But there were some signs that the film crew and their stars really were here. Two girls from Coalway, out for an evening in Chepstow last Monday, encountered actor Ewan McGregor having a quiet drink.

They chatted with him "for quite a while" and he revealed that he was to stay in Chepstow "for about three weeks".

Friday saw a big exodus from the crowded production 'village' that had been created, with just a handful of lighting units, a truck load of golf carts and one caravan left behind.

Helen O'Kane, manager of the popular visitor attraction and film set, still remains tight lipped about any aspect of the Star Wars filming, and their attendance at Puzzlewood. She told the Review that she was unable to make any comment or statement about the film: "until the movie is actually released".

The movie is not scheduled for release until December 2015!

In the meantime, social media chatrooms buzzed with the news about the filming at Puzzlewood – with suggestions that it could become a venue for events on International Star Wars Day, which is, naturally, on May the fourth.