Thanks for the responses guys, seems I'm doomed
according to
@themucky1 !
Luckily my neighbour is an old hand with lime and he's going to teach me. I came across this guy on YouTube
he does do a bit of lime but it's mainly pink plaster. There's a bunch of other videos on there with lime but none I've found from one source which seem to be as "start to finish" and everyone has their own theories and methods which can be confusing for a beginner like me.
We got the first coat done on a wall at the weekend, using a lime and sand mix as the underlying brickwork was really shonky
View attachment 77567
Next will be a coat of Warmcoat from Best of Lime then their final coat.