Cracks in my walls

mrsvanderkamp_2

Hi there

I wonder if anyone might be able to give some advice about some cracks that have appeared in my walls.

We have lived in the house for 13 years and the cracks have always been there but they seem to open up and then shrink periodically, which I put down to the weather (ie the soil being either particularly wet or dry). Is this feasible? They get filled and repaired but always reappear.

The cracks I am currently concerned about appear on both sides of the same wall, which is what is concerning me (although again, both of these have been there before and have been repaired and have only very recently reappeared to the extent that they are now). The width of the cracks ranges from hairline to 3mm. Obviously the ground is extremely wet at the moment, so I am wondering as mentioned above if this is the problem?

The weird thing is that although I believe this to be a load bearing wall (it is the wall between the dining room and kitchen, so internal at ground floor level, but it is the exterior wall to the roof at first floor level) when I knock on the wall, it sounds hollow in places (particularly where the cracking is the widest). Surely a load bearing wall should be totally solid and perhaps this is where the issue lies?

For information, the house is Victorian so around 110 years old, built I think, on clay and is on a hill. When we bought it "historical movement" was mentioned and this is evidenced from dropped lintels on the front of the house, but we have re-mortgaged twice since we bought it (the last time about 8 years ago) and on neither occasion was any mention or concern raised about cracking or movement.

Thanks for any help