We're driving down from Derbyshire to Symonds Yat at the weekend complete with dog. Any suggestions for a dog-friendly stop not too far from the M6? We're thinking maybe Stafford sort of area, but either side of that might work as well.
Ideally reasonably quiet where he can have a 20-30 minute walk and with easy, preferably free, parking - Chat GPT seems to have a penchant for suggesting stately homes with grounds or pubs with large gardens, neither of which are of much use to us.
Any suggestions welcome.
Cannock Chase perhaps? Easily accessed from J13 or J12.
Just be aware parking at the two main signed visitor centres can't be described as 'cheap' necessarily, but at least you can get a coffee, have a wee, etc. Otherwise there's probably still a few places where you can pull off the road in unregulated laybys.
Edit - another idea is Sandwell Valley Country Park (M5, J1) a bit further south. Would that work?
Stafford Castle would work well.
We often stop at Lydiate Ash which is just a couple of minutes off the M6, there's a little garden centre with a good cafe. A few minutes from there there's a country park.
Just to add to the Stafford Castle suggestion - car park is free (open 7am to 8pm), when the Visitor Centre is open (11am to 4pm) there are toilets and we put a water bowl out. Simple tea and coffee plus snacks in the VC, dogs welcome on lead, picnic benches outside.
Walks through the woods or around the castle grounds, loads of dogs around at all times.
Brilliant, thanks all! Appreciated. We'll see how the journey time's going and take it from there.
Should the dog really be doing the driving? (Someone had to be that person!)