Dear Shoe, great piece! When I first went to Horticultural college, the first thing they taught us was how to single and then double dig, and add manure or other organic matter. We have a clay soil, and as clay is the finest soil particle there is, we added lime as it flocculates it, i.e. make its it into bigger pieces by changing the colloids in it. The problem is it knocks your pH balance skywards, but pH test kits are really cheap and easy to use, so as manure is acid and fights the lime, you can get it back to 7 which is neutral, or even more acidic using peat! But it has to be sphagnum moss peat, as sedge peat is alkaline.
We have a stables near us, and if you take your own sacks the manure is free, ideal for the garden!
Hope you are well?
Neil.
