Several families 'meeting the middle'

[QuickWash]

We are looking to meet up with a few other families in Feb half term for a couple of nights. Children range in age from tiny to teens.

We are flexible on location but we will be travelling from SW and others coming from North/Midlands so somewhere central ish would be fab.

Not looking for luxury but need enough space to be able to neet up for a meal or evening chat etc.

have a look at groupaccommodation.com and bigholidayhouse.com websites. they specialise in groups of 8+. the only places we stay in regularly are Porthmadog and Looe which might not be where you want to meet up.

We do this and usually just pick a chain pub for the meal. They can cope with groups ordering food, the smaller kids are tolerated and they don't seem to care if we linger.

The one we go to most often has a Premier Inn attached too, for those who have travelled furthest. Fortunately it is in driving distance for us so we can escape.

I'm a bit late to this but when organising this sort of thing, my starting point is www.whatshalfway.com
You can put in everyone's location and what sort of meet up place you're looking for and then it will tell you which area you should be looking at to make the travelling distance more or less equal for all.
Some of the venues it comes up with are not brilliant IMHO but it is good for pinpointing the start of your search area.
I agree with 3pl in that Premier Inns are good for this sort of thing.
Every family gets their own space, and bathroom. No-one has to do the catering or the washing up and shopping. And, most important, you can retire to your room for a bit of peace if it starts to get a bit much.

3pl = PP.

I'd try to find a Manor house hotel, or something cosy and quiet yet not isolated. finding this kind of place does sound like a bit of a hassle, so i'd ask group travel specialists such ato-tours.com or actours for help which saves you a lot of time and a bit of money.