Ideally the pattress should be either softwood or something like 9mm plywood, the nails should be driven at an angle downwards through the pattress and into the wall and the nails need to be orientated in the same direction as the laths (horizontal). It is possible to fix a pattress to a lath and plaster wall with oval nails (1-1/2 to 3in ones). So, I think I'd start at a corner then set out 16in centres to the approximate area you want your TV to go, then using a drill or an awl probe to see if you can hit a stud. When you pin skirtings on the skirtings are often actually fixed with a grip adhesive - all the pins do is hold the skirting up whilst the glue sets (really!) - so it matters little where you put the pins If you've had the skirtings replaced then that's out, I'm afraid. Studs are invariable on 16in (not 400mm) centres, although this cannot always be guaranteed, and you'll always get a stud either side of a door opening as well as in a corner to start from by "dead reckoning" if you will. Another clue might be in the skirtings, if they are original, where it is sometimes possible to make-out slight depressions in the surface of the skirting where it has been nailed to studs, punched under and filled (and the filler has shrunk slightly) - visible in a light held almost parallel to the skirtingh. Both are steel, and therefore magnetic, and can be detected by slowly passing a rare earth magnet across the wall. Either way the means of finding studs in both types of walls are similar - plasterboard until trhe 1990s was generally nailed to the stiuds with a type of galvanised clout nail whilst laths are nailed to the studs using what looks like a furniture tack. 1950s seems late for a lath and plaster wall - Gypsum boards and plaster were introduced late '20s/early 30's so after WWII they became almost universal very quickly (in part because they are both faster to install and cheaper than lath).
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