My misses has instructed me to find a nice place for us to spend a long weekend wth the kids. The perfect location would have some open space, maybe a wood or forest, some shops and obviously some decent pubs for me to visit. We like olde feel towns and I'd like a bit of peace and quiet.

We don't like to travel for too long in the car with the kids as they are both under 3 and get a bit moody so a place within 2 1/2 hours from North London would be ideal. I live under 10 minutes from junction one of the M1 so some distance can be covered.

I'm in the process of investigating myself, but it would be stupid of me not to ask for some ideas from the well travelled people that use this site.

Cheers in advance

Steve.