I was planning on going down on the Saturday and stopping over around Birmingham or just South of it, though may be persuaded otherwise. I'm just North of Manchester.
What time you thinking of setting off? Just that with all the road works and 50mph average cameras in them, it could take a bit longer than usual, though traffic should be OK. Oh, and I'm too tight to use the toll road on the M6, so still go either the old section or the M5, dependant on traffic and my mood at the time.
Looking at setting off around 5. Giving myself around 3 hours with a pit stop for breakfast. As you say, stopping over the night before is the logical solution just not practical for me this weekend unfortunately.
I'll come back to you a bit later on this one if that's OK?
I'm hoping that I'll be meeting up with Developer John somewhere South of Birmingham (Warwick services possibly) so could possibly meet you at Knutsford and see how it goes from there?