I am now seriously impressed. This afternoon I tried HDR at its simplest level and it worked even though (cover yours eyes and ears) I tried it just on jpegs. Bash me all you like for that, but it still worked for me.
3 shots bracketed +/-2, layered them in PS, a bit of colour correction to regain some contrast and there it all is! Amazing.
I got the missing detail in my highlights and the noise reduction plus added detail in the shadow end. Then I whacked on a load of sharp, as printers do, and only minimal artifacts turned up.
Thanks a lot guys, I learned at least something today.
Now I need to attempt to crop & attach my files so you can see at the correct resolution...hmmm.
(Dog walking beckons first!)