If you have to stay overnight, then a good plan could be to set off early, drive down and meet up with Jedi on the first day.
Then stay overnight in Steveneage and put your new found Jedi skills into action at Chicksands during the second day.
Chicksands is about an hour or so north of Herts and is a few miles off the A1. Its quite small, so its good for sessioning. You can then drive home afterwards.
It was worth the long drive for us and the practice session at Chicksands helped imprint the skills asap.
I hope that helps.