If you fancy the trip to Thornton Watlass on October 27th (Sunday from mid-day, some will be there from about 11.30am) you can meet up with a few of us that play C6th and A6th, pedal and non-pedal. Me (C6th pedal), Rod King (A6th non-pedal) Basil Henriques (everything!) Keith Glendenning (C6th non-pedal) plus a few more guys. It could be a valuable experience for you. We have a "Round Robin" where each plays the tune, then it passes on to the next player - this time it's 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain', Keith has produced a BIAB file for backing, if you are interested let me have your email add (send in a PM) I can pass it to Keith to put you on the emailing list for future dates and BIAB files.
My advice would be to learn to play the C6th tuning without pedals at first and then add pedals bit by bit as you find a need for a particular note not in the basic tuning. Also you can learn a lot about "6th" tunings from plank players!
Some travel quite long distances to be here for these meetings so Sheffield is not so far after all

Thornton Watlass is between Bedale and Masham, about 5 miles East off A1, junction 51 we meet in the Buck Inn - HG4 4AH.