Yeah, it didn't create the .htaccess file for me, so I did it manually. No idea if that was related to this problem, or a separate quirk.
And I feel foolish - my response to questions like this is usually "check the logs"
:(
code:
[Sat Oct 15 17:29:15 2011] [error] [client X] (13)Permission denied: Could not open password file: /home/user/.htpasswds/my-secret-dir/passwd
[Sat Oct 15 17:29:15 2011] [error] [client X] user wibble not found: /secret-path/index.html
The .htpasswds directory wasn't letting Apache in - I fixed that and it now works.
Thanks.
:)EDITED: 15 Oct 2011 17:43 by BOUGHTONP