oh Nadine - I posted back on my original thread at the time to thank everyone for their recommendations.
We had the most fabulous time - really enjoyed ourselves. In fact, will almost certainly go back for a weekend. M6, after the toll road, was solid so we had to take a diversion around the A34 (beautiful countryside, I have to say) so it took AGES and on the way back, there was another accident, so we spent hours in the car. And the aircon had stopped working!
We were overwhelmed with people's kindness - ds was in his football strip and people stopped to talk to us in the street, asked if we were enjoying ourselves, when do the kids go back to school yadda yadda. Very different from London where most people just push past you!