Hardwood / parquet flooring issue

upallnighteatingcheese

We have not long moved into a new house and were hoping to lift the living room carpet and sand/varnish the original floor boards.
It's 1900 victorian house with a 5ft celler underneath the living room floor so access underneath is no problem.

We've lifted the carpet to find that the majority of the floor has been laid over with plywood so the previous owners would have a level floor to lay the carpet. The only part where there isn't plyboard is the parquet flooring surround that runs the length of 3 walls and is about 2 foot out from the wall towards the centre of the room.
Where the parquet stops, the plywood starts, to create a level floor on which they have laid carpet.

Asides from the hundreds of nails they have used to lay the plywood, this is coming up relatively easily. But the parquet is a different issue.
This seems to have been glued top of the original floorboards and then nailed down. A small attempt to lift any parquet is just chipping very small bits off at a time and the floor underneath will get damaged if i try and prise it up. It's stuck solidly to the floorboards I think.

So my question is....does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove the parquet or if it is even possible? Is it now a permanent part of the floorboards they are attached to?

It's been suggested that we bite the bullet and replace all the floorboards in the room if we want that efffect, but it's a shame to rip up old floorboards if we can help it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated