Excellent advice added - like everyone else said, don't be afraid to ask questions. As others have said joining your local Astro club will also help, not only with setup but inspiration. My local club (Wessex Astro) have been excellent.
Regarding the North alignment:- once you are setup outside, and you find an object you want to observe, the better aligned to Polaris you are the easier it will be to follow it as the Earth rotates. Think of it like this, if the RA axis is reasonably well aligned to Polaris, it is parallel to the Earth's rotational axis, meaning that to follow an object you are only going to need to move one axis on the mount, the RA axis. Occasionally you may need to move the Dec to account for some innacuracies, but mostly just that one. Where a lot of folks get frustrated is not having the mount aligned even roughly, and having to keep adjusting both axis to keep the object in the field of view, not easy for your brain when the image in the eyepiece is upside down. This will definately cause mashed swede syndrome followed by frustration and giving up.
One last point (sorry if someone already mentioned this, not had time to read all the responses), the mount will have a altitude adjustment (straight up and down) and a scale on the side with degrees. Before you take it outside set this approximately to your Latitude, so for Derbyshire you're going to be setting it to about 53 degrees. Once you level it outside it's going to be pointing the RA axis at about the right angle for Polaris, you will then just need to move it left or right to be aligned with Polaris. If you can't see Polaris from your location, use a compass to point it North. Again, don't let perfection be the enemy of the good, just as close as you can get it without raising your blood pressure.
Best of luck, let us know how you get on.