There are all sorts of motorhomes on the market -- but there's nothing quite like the monster that Doug Hodgson has made his own.

For even the most plush film star-style trailer pales alongside his head-turning behemoth -- a customised flour tanker complete with loo, stereo and colour TV.

The vehicle started life as an A-series ERF bulk flour tanker which, for 27 years from 1967 to 1994, operated from a mill at Stockport.

Doug spotted her for sale in a magazine and, after years of having to shell out for B and B when taking his old restored recovery truck to vintage fairs, immediately spotted her potential for conversion.

And now, despite having some two million miles on the clock, it takes he and his wife Glynis from their home in Stillington, near Easingwold, North Yorkshire, to shows all over the country.

Doug, who's now 59 and semi-retired, has totally transformed the tank into smart living accommodation complete with carpets, fitted kitchen, beds, vanity unit and all mod-cons -- including a power shower.

The massive task took some six months to complete -- and Doug had to rely on his ingenuity to over come some problems.

"I wanted to have some sources of natural light -- so I cut the centres out of the old loading hatches and replaced them with glass domes from old washing machine doors found at the local tip," he said.

However the job was ever an easy or clean one. When he first cut his way into the tank he had to scrape away three hundredweight of flour from the inside.

"My wife declined the offer of the flour for baking -- but the birds enjoyed it for many a meal," he joked.

At the flour mill the tanker was called Silkworm after an old stagecoach that served the silk towns of Lancashire in the 17th-century and Doug, a one-time lorry driver turned car-dealer, has kept the name.

However there is still one touch he wants to add to Silkworm before he can think of her as complete.

"We have a heating system on board but my wife says that as the nights are getting chilly it now needs central heating -- so I'm on the lookout for something now," he said.