felt over bricks/flashing

[daveaspy]

When I went around the back of the house the other day I noticed all this felt hanging off the bricks. I don't know the history of this and if it was put there to fix another problem. In the short term, what's the best thing to reattach it to the brickwork?

Any thoughts why it might have been put there, it looks like its mortered on the top 'step' which seems more that just patching something up?

 

[DAZB]

It really needs to be removed and the chimney repointed as it was obviously a sticking plaster to stop it leaking at some point in the past. The bricks and mortar that are visible do not actually look all that bad so may not be too bad a job once you uncover it all.

 

[daveaspy]

I don't even know what this structure was meant to be - its just a double brick wall and not a chimney. The roof closer to the camera is on an extension to the original building so I dont know if the steps are original or added as something for the additional roof to butt up to