"or example, flying from Nottingham to Stapleford/Southend - looking at it, there appears a few obstacles but not that are not surmountable."
Not a difficult route at all.
If you don't want to transit the STN zone you could route down the gap between the LTN and STN class D. This is southerly track from Royston down towards Ware VRP, turning south east thereafter. The VRP is easily identified by a large road viaduct in a valley.
Farnborough radar will give you clearance to transit through the STN TMZ (North Weald sits within this), make sure you're below 1500 well before reaching the VRP. If you're routing into north weald you will be assigned conspicuity code 7010 and need to be squawking this (mode s "alt" at all times) when in the vicinity of the field. Its worth calling north weald radio even if you're just flying through the locality as they have a range of fast warbird and jet traffic.
Agreed as between NW and Stapleford, north weald would probably a more enjoyable visit. Just don't confuse runway 20 and 02 which has been a "gotcha" for quite a few people!
