HIGHER Folds' reputation as the country's biggest divorce hot spot is spreading.

The 50's-built estate, once the starter home mecca for young families, including mine, was included in a national paper survey on "Where is the best place for?"

When I lived at the top of the estate as a youngster in the 60s it was full of young marrieds in their 20s and 30s, who had spent the first few years of their lives together on the council waiting list while living with parents -- and pensioners' flats.

When we moved into Kenilworth we were in the end house surrounded by fields and loved it there. The biggest problem was the distance from town in the days when not many people could afford cars and had to depend on a 20 minute bus service past the long-gone sulphur smelling, smoking rucks. Many's the night my running prowess came into good use when I had to sprint home when the last bus failed to materialise.

And many's the time I had to travel home with estate character Nora Speakman's dog on my knee while I tested her on the world's car registration numbers. They were good times. I have only pleasant memories of the estate.

If it now has one in six divorced people it's only the same as everywhere else. That's modern life. Today couples divorce at the drop of the hat, in previous generations they hung on in because life wasn't made easy for them with a too easy to get homes and benefits system.