This was a close up of the bracket that was holding up a Televes Dat 45. If you know what aerial that is, you'll know it's incredibly heavy and has a high wind resistance. It looks like the bracket is from a previous installation, but that hasn't stopped these cowboys re-using it even though it's badly corroded and severely inadequate. I mean look at the way the strap goes around the chimney. One corner is almost sliding off the brick and the angle of the wire is unbelievable. This should never be installed here. The chimneys is bad enough shape as it is, but this is almost enough to pull the top of the chimney off. It looks to me like they couldn't get enough tension on the wire, so they have hammered the bracket down into the mortar to pull the strap tighter.

The strap is cutting into the mortar, and this is the corner where the strap is almost sliding off. The top three courses on a chimney should never be used to install the lashing wire, let alone the top three centimetres. The tension imposed by the strap is just too much for the top of a chimney, and this chimney was having a hard time staying together. The aerial was installed on a woefully inadequate steel mast, which had bent under the strain. The bottom half of the chimney was in good shape, and a large cradle, new (thicker) mast and long lashing wire later the installation was saved! I guess the previous installer couldn't be bothered to fit a lashing kit all the way around. Even two standard kits lashed together to make one long one would have been better than this. Perhaps they only had one lashing kit and no brackets?