The water in Basingstoke is hard. Here is the reason.

As with the majority of the south of England, Basingstoke is subject to hard water. Although it is widely assumed that water hardness is due to the way water companies treat water, this isn’t the case. The real reason why water is hard is because of the soil beneath our feet. Just like the rest of Hampshire, the area around Basingstoke sits on soil which is predominantly comprised of clay, limestone and chalk, all of which contains plentiful amounts of calcium and magnesium minerals.

Rainfall is naturally soft. Nevertheless, when it comes into contact with these calcium and magnesium minerals, this has the effect of turning the water hard. It’s a natural phenomenon! If you live in Basingstoke and would rather not have hard water in your home, the most sensible solution is to have a water softener installed. Skin, hair and laundry respond well to softened water, since hard water causes dryness and starchiness. It washes the living daylights out of things!

Also, a water softener will stop limescale build up in its tracks, protecting pipework and household appliances. Meanwhile, washing machines and dishwashers operate far more effectively and it takes far less effort to keep kitchen and bathroom surfaces looking clean and shiny. What’s more, you’ll save a sizeable amount on household energy bills and be safe in the knowledge that your central heating stays working for years longer than it would if it was constantly fighting hard water-induced limescale.

The water hardness measurement for Basingstoke is around 284 parts per million (ppm), which is significantly high. The more it rains, the higher the reading. Any reading over 200ppm is deemed to be hard, so at nearly 300ppm Basingstoke is registering to the top end of the scale.

Basingstoke – an Overview

Annual rainfall: 30.75inch or 781mm.

As the largest town in Hampshire, Basingstoke is situated to the north of the county lying across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, on the western edge of The North Downs. Basingstoke is located 30 miles north-east of Southampton, 48 miles south-west of London, 27 miles west of Guildford, and 20 miles north-east of Winchester.

With a population of around 115,000, Basingstoke is an old market town which expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s, as part of the so-called London overspill. Whilst it still has a regular market, it is now larger than Hampshire County Council’s definition of a market town.

Today, Basingstoke is a key economic centre, hosting the UK headquarters of companies like Motorola, The Automobile Association, De La Rue, Sun Life Financial, ST Ericsson, GAME, Eli Lilly and BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions. It is also the location of the European headquarters of the TaylorMade Golf Company.