Halfway London to Manchester

It looks like the stops on the railroad line that runs from London Euston Station to Manchester are limited, at least on the fast trains. See https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/stations-destinations

Stoke-on-Trent is one major stop, though it is closer to Manchester than to London. http://www.visitstoke.co.uk/Stoke-on-Trent-Stoke-on-Trent-TIC/details/?dms=3&venue=2222825

A little closer to London is Lichfield Trent Valley https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionsNear-g186376-d4140723-Lichfield_Trent_Valley_Station-Lichfield_Staffordshire_England.html

Georgiatraveler, What about York? It is a longer trip for you (2 hours), but it is an easy trip from London.

There are plenty of museums and galleries that you could visit in Birmingham and the city has good rail networks from Stockport and London. Apparently, Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice! Over the past decade, a lot of money has been spent on the public realm and it's now a great place to spend a day or two, although the architecture is predominantly Victorian, so it's not as "old" looking as York or Chester.

With respect, you are going to get lots of recommendations for York, as many posters on this forum follow a very similar itinerary - London- York-Edinburgh (possibly Durham too) and relatively few will have been to Birmingham!

Ask your niece is the obvious answer. Stoke, Lichfield etc are not exciting places to spend any time.

If you love Shakespeare, you will love Stratford Upon Avon. You can visit the house where he was born, then the site of his own home as well as Anne Hathaway's home (his wife) and his mother's farm. Also, visit his tomb.

Warwick Castle is interesting, especially if you have kids.

Oxford is another option.

If you have any interest in canals or canalboats, I'll put a plug in for Market Harborough. Google it and you'll see. The town surrounds a medieval market hall and has numerous winding streets worth puttering around. At the edge of town is Union Wharf, where canalboats start journeys down to the Grand Union Canal. A few miles out of town is Foxton Locks, a long steep flight of canal locks, which is very interesting and has a pub where you can watch it all.

From London, its a direct train from St Pancras and takes about an hour.

From Stockport, you can connect via Sheffield and Leicester in 2 hrs 20 mins; or via Nottingham in 2 hrs 50 mins. This is about an hour longer each way than Birmingham is, but worth thinking about if you like canals and boats.

It's been a long time but I remember Nottingham itself as having a far more attractive centre than Birmingham. Maybe things have changed. There' s the castle, the interesting Wollaton Hall ( bus ride from the centre, I believe), there used to be a busy market building close to the centre, lots of decent pubs near the market square. I liked the tiny Bell Inn, if it's still open?

Birmingham makes sense; the other places suggested all have problems for one or both of you.

Major works at Foxton Staircase Locks for the next couple of months, by the way.

Where would your niece like to meet up?

Thanks everyone! She's thinking about what we can do as well but since she's only 18 I wanted to try and make it easy if possible, plus she hasn't really traveled outside of the greater Manchester area on her own any, my reasoning for getting others opinions. Everyone has given some great advice, areas we can definitely talk about when making our decision.

There's also no lack of very interesting things to do within 30 to 60 minutes' travel from Manchester either, if she is nervous traveling alone.

Nigel I've thought about that. I've always loved my trips there and have never lacked things to do so I will be thinking about that option as well. Thankfully we have plenty of time to plan!

How about Liverpool? It's certainly easy to get to from both London and Manchester, and has more than enough sights to fill several days (I spent 4 nights there and didn't run out of things to do). Of course it's of particular interest if anyone in your group is a Beatles fan, but there's plenty of non-Beatles sights too.

Rick's Great Britain and England books have an excellent chapter on Liverpool (same exact chapter in both books). Or, you can look at my trip report, which also details my time in Manchester: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/uk-trip-report-glasgow-manchester-liverpool-in-september-2016