Melton Mowbray Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Melton Mowbray, the Leicestershire market town famous for Stilton cheese and pork pies, sits on the edge of the Jurassic limestone vale and is served by Severn Trent Water. Supply for north-east Leicestershire draws on boreholes sunk into the Jurassic Marlstone Rock and Lincolnshire Limestone — two Jurassic limestone aquifer horizons that underlie the Melton area and the Vale of Belvoir to the north-east. These oolitic and calcareous formations are productive water-bearing rocks that yield moderately hard groundwater. Water is treated at Empingham Water Treatment Works near Rutland Water and distributed west through the north Leicestershire network to Melton Mowbray. Severn Trent also sources blended supply from Rutland Water — the largest artificial reservoir by area in England — which stores water from the Rivers Eye and Welland for the east Midlands supply zone.

The Jurassic Marlstone Rock (a ferruginous oolitic limestone known locally as Northamptonshire Ironstone) and the Lincolnshire Limestone (Great Oolite) that form the escarpment east and north of Melton Mowbray are permeable carbonate rocks that dissolve calcium and magnesium bicarbonate into percolating groundwater. At 190.5 mg/L the hardness reflects this Jurassic limestone aquifer character — harder than the Elan Valley-dominated west Midlands but softer than chalk-dominated zones further east. The TDS of 487.2 mg/L is consistent with Jurassic carbonate groundwater with modest additional sulphate and iron from the marlstone horizons.

At 190.5 mg/L Melton Mowbray's water is moderately hard and limescale requires regular attention. Kettles should be descaled monthly with a citric acid tablet or white vinegar soak. Shower heads and tap nozzles benefit from periodic soaking to clear mineral deposits. Washing-up liquid lathers adequately. Combi-boilers and white goods appliances benefit from inline scale inhibitor protection. In the dairying and cheese-making industry centred on Melton, water quality is also a professional consideration — the moderately hard limestone-fed water has long been part of the region's agricultural and food production character.