Hi All,
Many thanks for the replys, I'm certainly not afraid of digging, that's for sure. In terms of pathways, I will probably just leave them as grass in all honesty. What is there is generally OK, so digging out the worst of the weeds and replacing with weed seed at the start of the year sounds like the most aesthetic option. Any weed that pop up on the grass paths can get treated during the growing season next year. I'm not after manicured lawn effect pathways that's for sure.
Weighing up all the info... and trying to deal with the weeds and clay soil in one hit....
Double dig each of the beds, putting weedy soil face down in the bottom of the beds and mix compost / sand with the top layers to bulk it up. Top up as necessary with topsoil to get a decent height in the bed.
Thankfully most of the nettle runners are VERY high in the top soil, so seem to be coming out with a bit of careful persuasion. I think even the weeds are having a hard time establishing themselves the soil is THAT compacted!! I nearly surprised myself at the lack of size on the dock root I just pulled out... it was only 3 inches long.
Anyhoo, here's the before picture for reference... we're on chopping back the hedge - that'll gain us an extra 6 foot to the width of the garden as it is.
The shed at the top end is being brought closer to the house (roughly behind where the picture was taken) to make way for composting and the chicken run up that end.
The path you can partly see runs right up to the top, but will be getting a makeover to make it more of a permanent walkway up to the end.
We're sticking a 2m x 2.5 m polytunnel to the right side (just left of the small wooden kids house thing) partly as I refuse to cut down the tree that's there already and it's a decent space for it.