First scope advice - Goto or larger apeture?

I've just borrowed a friend's 60mm Tasco scope and am now quite keen on
buying my own telescope.

I've just had to give up scuba diving due to ear problems, track driving
due to a large crash, basketball due to repeated broken/torn limbs and
figured that I can't do myself that much harm with astronomy!

I'm a bit confused by all the different options available. I've spent
the last few days on google and read a couple of beginners books, but
feel its now time to try to get some direct advice.

I was thinking of a budget around 600 pounds as my friend's telescope
isn't great, the mount moves around a lot and at high magnification (on
an alt-az mount) things whizz out of view too fast to track them because
there are no fine adjustments available. Though I guess I need to
budget some money in for an extra Eyepiece or two as I guess two plus a
Barlow could add up to another 100 pounds.

So, initially I was pretty much set on something like a Meade ETX90
which seemed to be a reasonable size and with full goto facility meant I
could find and track whatever I wanted to view.

However, I've been thinking that I might be better off with a larger
Newtonian on an EQ mount - and 6" ones seem to be in the same price
range.

So, am I right in thinking that the 6 inch Newt will give me a much
better view of most things than the 3.5 inch Mak (assuming I can
actually find them on my own).

Is there anything that the Meade would do better? I've found reviews of
similar sized telescopes, but nothing much on a price level comparison -
ie what can the larger scope see that the smaller one cannot.

I've noticed that you can get EQ mounts with motors, though from what I
can tell, its just a manual movement and sidereal tracking - rather than
the full goto of the meade scope. Is there any way to add 'goto' to a
mount of this type? I'm pretty good with electronics and have a load of
computers lying around that could be used, if there's a way of
interfacing to the motors (the tiny ETX70 can be got for under 200
pounds, so it must be possible to build goto pretty cheaply).

Can anyone suggest a local club and/or shop that is worth seeking out in
the Swindon area - I don't mind travelling a bit to get some decent help
and advice. I'm also not averse to getting a second hand telescope
(which might allow me to get an 8 inch version?), but I'm not sure if
that's a good idea as I'd find it pretty difficult to know whether what
I was buying was any good!

I'd quite like to have a go at photography and have already found the
numerous references to the TouCam, so I intend to get hold of one of
those at some time in the future, so whatever I buy needs to be capable
of having a camera attached.