Restoring old cellar

[Jambalaya]

Evening all,

My house was built around 1870 and it has a vaulted cellar. The person I bought the property off lifted a few of the Yorkshire flagstones from the cellar floor to make a patio in the back garden, don’t worry I know what you’re all thinking. Frikken idiot!
Anyway it’s been a year and with endless other jobs I’m finally getting round to the cellar. It’s damp and musty so I’m looking for advice on the best course of action. I only want the cellar to be a cellar I’m not interested in turning into a habitable space.
So far I understand I need to relay the flags that were removed. Should I just lay them on the earth underneath, just like the ones that were spared from the patio.
Also the walls have been painted and then plastered. There’s also back bitumen paint in some areas. Should I remove the plaster to allow the walls to breathe?
The old coal shoots have been bricked up and only one air brick put in for ventilation. There are two shoots in total. Should I open these up for ventilation? Maybe put windows in?

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Some of the plaster had already blown so I thought I might as well knock it off. Just don’t want to do the whole cellar before getting some advice.

Many thanks
Jamie

 

[Gkw123]

Hi Jamie , I have a similar cellar at a with similar problem , no plaster just bare brick but damp which pushes paint off. our coal cellar is always damp. my feeling is with ours to increase airflow and no tanking is the only way, the damp is in the ground , it can be managed intelligently.
check this guy , cellars vary but the principle doesn’t . I’m clearing out my cellar today to then have a rethink , I have two new de-humidifiers from a renovation job I did but as tempting as it is I probably won’t use them , I’ll end up just sucking water ’into’ the basement through the walls! hey ho
good luck with your’s . G

this guy: