Repairing plaster/curtain rail

bbat

This morning the curtains, curtain rail and crumbling plaster came away when I opened the curtains. Photo of damage attached. It's very old plaster and clearly the screws weren't long enough to hold through that material. Curtains have been up for a few years. My question is, if I patch repair those holes with a suitable filler (I've used a natural lime-based filler elsewhere) can I fix the pole in the same place or will the area just been too weak? Or is it trial and error territory? 
Last resort I could attach the brackets to the wooden frame it's just this lifts the rail away form the window creating a gap for light down edge of curtain (it's a bedroom). 
Ideas very welcome! Thanks

tacpot12

The plaster is likely to be weak, so you will need longer screws and some sort of wall plug so you can get the screw to fix into the brickwork.

I would try to get the wallplug into the brickwork, then fit a screw without anything else, fill around the screw, and once the filler is dry, remove the screw and refit the curtain rail. 

YBR

Could you rotate the fixings so that you attach to the underside of the wooden frame, the bit that looks like a shelf?

There's also two holes where sonething's been attached to the side moulding previously - would that serve again or is it too narrow?

I'm not quite sure - a wider angle, showing more of the width of the window and above might help.

On one occasion we put a batten on the wall across the width of the window, above it attached with grab adhesive and 4 or 5 screws to spread the load, then attached the curtain rail fixings to that with wood screws but doesn't look like that's an option with the moulding on the window frame?

Mr.Generous

If the wall can't be drilled deeper for any reason set the plug in the hole using no nails, give it a couple of days to really harden and it should hold. Better sollution would be resin, or plugging compound, but no nails is cheaper.

bbat

Thanks for the ideas all!
I can get longer screws/plugs to tap into the brick. I will look at these other options too. 

FreeBear

When fixing "stuff" to the walls here, it is pot luck if you drill in to a (crappy weak) mortar joint, or hit brick. If I'm lucky, it is a hard clay brick that I drill in to. Of late, I seem to be hitting soft reds or a cinder block - Neither of which have any real strength to them. And if I need a deep hole for say a radiator mounting, I end up going in to a void (bricks were all laid frog down). If I need certainty of fixing, I've taken to using a resin - https://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-styrene-free-polyester-resin-175ml/9349j - An expensive solution when it is just a couple of holes, but sometimes worth it.