Homes in Bursledon are subjected to hard water. Here’s why.

If you are a resident of Bursledon, like so many other places in Hampshire and especially round the Southampton area, your water will be hard. It’s nothing to do with rainwater, which is soft. It’s all down to the soil.

The geology of the Bursledon area is comprised chiefly of chalk and limestone strata, which is rich in magnesium and calcium minerals. When rainwater reaches the soil, these minerals have the effect of turning the water from soft to hard.

If you don’t particularly like persistently hard water, the best option is to go for a water softener. There are so many advantages it will provide. Skin and hair love soft water. Hard water dries them out, whereas softened water will leave them looking and feeling silky, vibrant and making hair more amenable to styling. Laundry also appreciates soft water; clothing and towels won’t have that crusty feel and drained of colour.

Hard water is the menace behind limescale build-up. Water softeners are extremely efficient at removing scale altogether, preventing it from accumulating in household appliances, like washing machines, dishwashers and kettles where it is particularly evident. Soft water also means using less elbow grease when cleaning kitchens and bathrooms – and you won’t get through cleaning products nearly as quickly. Your money will also go much further with soft water flowing through the central heating system. That’s because it won’t get clogged up with scale, making it more expensive to generate the right amount of energy and, in time, seriously downgrading your boiler’s performance.

In Bursledon, the water hardness reading registers 282 parts per million (ppm). Any reading above 200ppm is considered hard, which means Bursledon is towards the top of the water hardness league table.

Bursledon – an Overview

Annual rainfall: 18.98inch or 482mm.

Bursledon is a Hampshire village located on the River Hamble. It lies within the borough of Eastleigh, just a few miles from the city of Southampton. Surrounding villages include Swanwick, Hamble-le-Rice, Netley and Sarisbury Green. At the 2011 census, the population was recorded at 6,188.

Bursledon has a railway station, marina, dockyards and the Bursledon Windmill.

It has always had close ties with the sea. The Elephant Boatyard is where Henry VIII’s fleet was built. Today, submerged remnants of the fleet can still be found in the Hamble. The village, especially the Elephant Boatyard and the Jolly Sailor pub, were used extensively in the filming of the 1980s BBC TV soap opera Howards’ Way.