Well - physio assessment yesterday. Very impressively, despite the full waiting room they were running exactly on time.
After 25 min (you get 30), my physio asked if I minded if she consulted a colleague, the senior physio.
Off she trots, returning 5min later.
After another 30min, with me feeling like a fool and hypochondriac, he decides I probably don't have a trapped nerve or spinal stenosis, but that the root of the problem is indeed in my hip. That would make sense, since it's not 'normal'. All involved are a bit bemused that I haven't had lots of surgery. It's the second question they ask: "How much surgery have you had?". "None" really throws them.
Conclusion is that there is a deep-seated misfunction in my right hip, causing me to move/walk etc oddly and stressing my lower back, that this has been happening all my life and current problems are the result of accumulated strain.
A lot of tut-tutting over my wooden stick (made during a school trip while I was supervising kids). I have a lovely NHS-issued grey one now, which I need if I'm walking any distance.