ONE in four women experience abuse at some point in their lives and two women are killed every week by a partner or former partner.

Domestic abuse also effects one in six men.

It has been 40 years since a group of pioneering Warrington women set up a refuge to help women and children flee dangerous households and Warrington Women's Aid is marking the milestone with a rebrand.

Sporting purple, green and white colours – paying homage to the suffragette movement – the charity held a celebration at Warrington Town Hall last Friday.

In the 1970s, a decade when it was still legal to rape your wife, a group of women started the Warrington and District Battered Wives Group to provide refuge to women and children.

The group asked Warrington Borough Council for a house and when they were refused, set about raising hundreds of pounds to buy their own building because they were determined that this provision should happen in Warrington.

The volunteers relied on donations from the public and the first refuge opened in 1978 for three women and up to six children.

Warrington Women's Aid chief officer Sally Starkey, who has worked in the domestic abuse services for 30 years, said: "I'm a little nervous as I feel I am representing 40 years of women, children, victims, survivors and volunteers.

"The council gave the group 18 months to prove that the refuge would work and calling it a 'worthwhile experiment' and luckily it paid off as we are still here.

"In the 1980s the group got a second house, this time from the council but the neighbours in the area organised a petition as they felt women coming would be of low reputation and reported use of foul language.

"One councillor who turned the group down for a £100 grant said that he 'would never want to encourage the break-up of a marriage'."

The charity continued to provide refuge in the 1990s and in the 2000s they received funding to buy a house – IKEA at Gemini furnished the house for free.

Sally said: "The house and funding meant stability and certainty for the paid staff and for the women and children there wasn't that fear that the charity could suddenly be closed down.

"There were still stories of women being put in the back of cars with coats over their heads and being driven to the refuge in the middle of the night and one who they felt was trapped in a house so they went and got a ladder and fireman's lifted her out of the back window."

Currently there are 13 families in the refuge which can house up to 19 children.

Sally added: "It can be very busy sometimes but we offer more one-to-one support, group work and the focus is more on recovering from the trauma from domestic abuse not just giving them a roof over their head, they need a lot more support.

"The whole family approach includes children, we have a complex case worker who works in the community with male and female victims so it is a case of making it more holistic to meet more people's needs.

"The original Warrington and District Battered Wives didn't cover male victims or honour-based victims so we have to be a lot more diverse in what we offer now."

The charity relies on the hard work of its trustees and refuge staff and donations of new clothes, toys and toiletries are needed.

For advice and support contact Warrington Women's Aid on 417138 or access the new website warringtonwomensaid.org.

In an emergency call the police on 999 or 101.