One night stopovers between Essex and Northumberland?

[Queuing4Fergs]

We are based in Essex and heading to Northumberland for a week in August. Looking for places to stop over for 1 night each way, to break up the journey.

We have DS12 and DS9 so looking for somewhere that would occupy them for an afternoon and morning - water park? Themepark? A decent fun museum or place of interest?

I'm not from the UK and my knowledge of any place north of us is pretty woeful 😳 so I'd be grateful for any recommendations. Accommodation-wise we would do a cheap and cheerful Premier Inn or similar

Thank you!

We often go on a long trip in the opposite direction and Leicester Space Centre is amazing or York is fun too both have premier inns or simar nearby

York is unfortunately not cheap! Alton Towers might be not too far from your route? Space station definitely good shout.

We stopped off at Beamish but your children might be the wrong age for that to be of interest.

Not been there, but kept seeing signs for Lightwater Valley which I think is a theme park

Where is halfway? Are you going up the A1 or M1?

If M1 then there's good stately homes in Derbyshire, Bolsover (EH) or Hardwick (NT) is probably closest to the motorway. If A1 then slightly further north there's Brodsworth Hall.

But I'd just do the drive in 1 day, a 9 and 12yo can cope with a 5-6 h drive and would give you more time in Northumbria. Have lunch somewhere nice (e.g. EH and NT depending on membership) around the halfway mark and let them have a run around.

I'd drive up in one day and skip the overnight stops, unless there is something you'd really like to see.

You have quite a lot of options if you don't mind deviating from the M1.

As wildcards, I'll throw in Liverpool, and The Peak District, or if you skip the stops, a trip to Edinburgh or the Lake Disrict mid-week

It's not that far that you need a stop tbh. I used to drive it regularly in 5 hours with just a loo break.

I had Chatsworth in mind.

If you are going to Northumberland, I'd definitely go to Alnwick. Northumberland is lovely. I'd also go to Newcastle and Scotland. Wooler is rumoured to be Postman Pat country and the Cheviots are good

i've always fancied a trip to Lindisfarne, but the coast is amazing. It's remained unscathed because the water is cold

If you are not familiar with the journey, you'll be quite surprised at how much our beautiful country changes as you go north. There's a lot of North.

The motorway sign 'LEEDS & The North' always gets me as it was the 2/3rds point on the journey (West of London to the Borders)

Wow, thanks for these responses. We definitely will stopover - DH has a back issue and can't tolerate more than about 3 hours in the car without a decent break.

We don't know which way we'll travel up yet - will depend on the stopover as we're pretty flexible.

I'll look into all these suggestions

@KirstenBlest we're staying in Alnwick as it happens! A week booked to explore the area

The 3 hr mark is probably towards the Peak District. If you are going to somewhere like Chatsworth, allow plenty of time.

How did I guess! It's lovely. I'd recommend Bamburgh, but the coast is nice as is the countryside. Berwick is a pretty, walled, town. I'd have to nip over the border just to say I'd been to Scotland.

I have a sweet memory of eating chips on the harbour in Seahouses

Do your research on what to see in Northumberland.

The place names aren't intuitive. I've been teased about some of them.
Edlingham is Edlinjum.

It really is a beautiful county. It will probably be colder and wetter than you think

Depending on your route, Derby is an interesting city with several quirky museums, riverside walks, and a huge choice of restaurants. Lincoln is a lovely ancient historic city, good for interesting ambles around.

On your return journey south, consider Hull (Kingston upon Hull) for the amazing The Deep, a vast spectacular aquarium, built on the riverfront, with thousands of creatures including sharks. There is an evening restaurant on the site too, which could be fun.

For a bit of fun background history to Bamburgh, have a read of the first book in The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell, (Book One is The Last Kingdom).
You are sure to have a wonderful time, as Northumberland is a beautiful place.

For Northumberland you'll need a couple of days for the castle, one for the garden and one for the castle itself. The broomstick flying lessons are very silly and very funny. Lindisfarne and Bamburgh beach are lovely. Further south but still north of Newcastle Belsay Hall has an unusual and very beautiful quarry garden.

For the way up/down in Yorkshire there's Fountain's Abbey / Studley Royal which is a World Heritage Site. We also love Newby Hall near Ripon which has the most beautiful gardens as well as an enormous playground for the DC (which even the teenagers still love). In Rotherham there is Magna which is a science museum in an old steel works. I agree with a PP that Chatsworth is fab. Make sure you get one of the headsets with the guide, my kids loved those (they were 7, 10 and 11 when we went). However it is very big, very busy and we spent the entire day there, it's not a quick couple of hours trip, it's also quite some distance from the M1.

Liverpool?? Both Northumberland and Essex are on the east coast, it wouldn't really make sense to go to the other side of the country on the way.

Chatsworth
Clumber Park
Hardwick Hall

All good shouts

Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Right on the M1, so you're not going out of your way either. Good food on site, loads for kids to do, incredible artwork. You could get a cheap Premier Inn nearby.

Chatsworth would be my second choice but you're going further out of your way.

Thought of somewhere else. I
Knaresborough in North Yorkshire is lovely, you can hire a boat to go rowing on the river and eat at the Marigolds Cafe on the riverside. Even Mother Shipton's Cave is less tacky than you might imagine from the descriptions, it's basically an nice riverside park. We went there August 2020 and we had gorgeous weather so I have very fond memories.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park is just off the A1 and worth a visit if only for the polar bears. Would be around halfway for you.

Another recommending Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster- v good links to motorway, amazing day out and loads of Premier Inn/ Travelodge type places within 15 mins of the park

Since you will be seeing a lot of nature in Northumberland, I'd got for something different such as Doncaster dome ( water park and ice rink) or cultural ( Hardwick, Leicester space centre) or simply a city ( Lincoln, York or durham)

If you do go to Chatsworth, the unpromising sounding Chesterfield West Premier Inn is an easy drive.

@robinkombucha , I did say it was a wildcard, and someone had already mentioned Alton Towers, which would also be quite a detour from the obvious route

I suggested it as it might be somewhere one might have always fancied visiting but would be quite a hike from Essex, but not such a hike from the M1.

Somewhere like say Harwich is a lot further east from Alnwick is than Liverpool is west

I wouldn't stop!

A brief stop at the Angel of the North is worthwhile.

The main spots can get very busy in the height of summer, since Covid. We've been going for 20 years and last summer was ridiculous in Seahouses, Bamburgh and Lindisfarne,
My tip would be to go early morning or late afternoon and to less busy places such as Berwick during the day.

I was also going to suggest Yorkshire wildlife park!

There’s a website called whatshalfway.com where you enter postcodes or towns start to finish then you can select things like accomodation, food drink etc. Might be worth giving that a go.
I will second Yorkshire Wildlife Park, it’s great.
We regularly drive from East Yorkshire to Essex and I’d want a stop too (although we often don’t bother as we’re not as far up as Northumberland.