It’s every gardener’s nightmare. Digging deep into the earth, you strike something hard and, with a metallic thud, a geyser of water fountains up into your face. One of our neighbours recently experienced such a shovelling disaster while erecting a new fence when an old lead pipe supplying her mains water was punctured by a misplaced spade.

An emergency repair job soon restored her drinking water supply and her unwanted new water feature suddenly vanished. But her watery debacle unearthed the reality that many of our homes are supplied by ageing lead pipes. Old pipes can sometimes leech into tap water and, if at sufficiently high concentrations, can cause harm to health. Time for a lead level check-up methinks… Read more