A friend of mine had a fellowship at Cambridge years ago, and on the first really cold day, he found his landlord outside pouring hot water on the pipes. He asked why the pipes weren’t built inside the walls. She replied, “But then there’d be no way to pour hot water on them!”🤪

In Bill Bryson’s book on houses he notes that after the Romans left, the British gave up on the whole idea of comfort for about a thousand years.

I'd say it was more like 1,500 years!