Insulate Britain moves up north.

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Mold.Ugh. I have high wood ceilings that have no finish on them ,if I don’t keep the humidity low they grow aspergillus blue mold.I don’t want “farmer’s lung” so run the AC on low most of the spring and summer.
Wood heat takes care of it in the winter.

So in addition to insulation, these homes (& many others too it seems) need better ventilation. Are newer homes already built to such standards? Could this simply be a requirement in older homes when they are upgraded? Such as the vinyl over wood, instead require it to be done properly (not over the wood, but the wood removed), & so on?

One of my mother's childhood friends rents a rickety old apartment in inner London where the heating is linked to a coin operated box which also controls electricity (so no electric heaters either). It's a ruse by the landlord to ensure the old age pensioners or low wage earners run out of money they move out or freeze to death in winter.

Not much has changed from Dicken's London.

One wall on our house is somewhere around 13ft thick in one corner but only around 6ft thick in the other. At the other end of the house in a room that was a garage but was too small in length to fit a car so apart from a few very short cars it was not practical, so was used as a storage room... It has an arrow slit window though it is not visible unless one removes the plaster on the outside or the plasterboard on the inside. (I prefer the stone look but this house is full of wooden wallboards over stone or brick (The kitchen was an extension so has early brick)).
Our last house we were able to roughly date it as being built before the 11th centuary. This house we are not sure because it has been rebuilt many times over the years. We know it was made before the 1600's but it could date right back through the history of the land and surrounding area.

This house does not look old though due to many generations having gradually improved upon it. It was once two very old cottages much like a neighbouring property a few hunderd yards from here where the neighbouring house was completely demolished in the 1980's and a large bungalow was built onto part of the foundations. It is actually a nicely built dwelling. I am more one who prefers if they took the old and extended it, as I like to see old houses re-invented so that they are modernized and used. I see far too many listed houses these days ending up in a poor state as they were listed and the owners could not afford to have the official listing builders in and they are not allowed to work on them themselves or change anything on the property, and so the properties start to fall into dissrepair. We once saw a lovely old cottage dating right back that had a 1970's caravan roof style window and the window in the roof was no longer available, was in a poor state of repair and despite the window being very young compared to the rest of the house, they were not allowed to change it for anything else then another one of these windows which had not been made for years, and so the house was deteriating around it. Sometimes, listing houses is the worst thing one can do to try to preserve them.

The houses which have been modernized many times through many generations still stand and are still in good repair because their owners have been able to substitute new for old when old is no longer available and this has gone on for generations.

You have a wall 13 feet thick?

Thats like as thick as a castle wall.

Is it all stone?

Maybe there's a secret chamber hidden in it ,like a Priest’s hole.