I’d imagine there might be a seperate red expansion vessel and pressure gauge somewhere and the vessel will need recharging. I can’t imagine the water in that custom being very clean and with the isolation valves restricting flow aswell I should think it would be very slow and inefficient.
Connect the permanent live and switched lives that went to your thermostat in the wall either where your room stat was or in the wiring centre and leave your neutral terminated safely on its own if there is one.
If it were me I'd bung the system, saw the collars off the old valves and prise them off and fit 2 new closed valves and then replace the pump at leisure
Turn mains power off to the heating system and see if the valve actuator returns to hot water position so there is resistance on the lever again, if it does then it's ok
What happens if you turn the boiler stat down to number one?,they do go out of calibration and the scale in the hi can prevent accurate temperature sensing especially after 30 plus years