Travelling from Bristol to Sheffield - good places to stop en route

LadyC

As the title suggests, we will be travelling from Bristol to Sheffield in a few weeks and wanted to know of some good places to stop en route, that are cheap, child-friendly and hopefully with a big outdoor area to knacker the children out (doesn't need to be a play area necessarily). Reasonably priced but nice food and not too far off the beaten track.

Ideally we want to stop once over halfway so I'm thinking somewhere at least 30 mins North of Birmingham.

TIA

OneYorkshireLass

Can't really help with places off the motorway, but if you need to stop and can't find anything else then the Moto Services at Tamworth (M42) are always nice.
If you go to the far end of the car park as you drive in there's a decent sized grass area next to the Travelodge.
http://www.moto-way.com/location/tamworth
Take a picnic perhaps?

LadyC

Thanks OneYorkshireLass, good shout!