Ref. 28453-19Woman who runs a haven for victims of domestic violence receives an MBE in the Queen's New Year's honour list.

A WOMAN who has spent more than half her life helping victims of domestic violence has been honoured by the Queen.

Jenni Manners, who runs Swindon Women's Refuge, said she regarded the award of MBE in the New Year Honours list as a tribute not to herself but to all the people who have made the refuge possible.

"That means the staff and volunteers who have worked here, borough councillors and officers who have supported us, Wiltshire police who have been there when needed and everyone who has provided funding and practical and moral support."

Ms Manners, 51, was a 24-year-old single mother when she first became involved with the voluntary group that set up the refuge 27 years ago. She had suffered abuse during her own marriage.

Months later she was running it and is now regarded nationally as an expert on the subject of domestic violence and rape.

"I couldn't believe it when the letter arrived telling me I was to receive the honour," she said.

"I thought when I saw the envelope that somebody had sent it to the wrong place.

"I considered turning it down because I felt I didn't deserve it personally. But it's also recognition of the work we do.

"A lot of people still don't believe that in towns like Swindon women can be the victims of violent assaults by men they live with."

When she started work for the refuge it sheltered 65 women and their children at a bleak, run-down house in Marlborough Road.

It frequently had rats coming in from Swindon cattle market which was then close by. And at times men tried to break in to get at their wives. Ms Manners had an Alsatian and later a Great Dane for her own protection.

"Funding was a huge problem. We were having to rob Peter to pay Paul when it came to meeting the bills."

Now, thanks largely to her efforts, the refuge has six adjacent houses made available by the council through a housing association, and takes in an average of more than 170 families a year. She and the refuge staff and volunteers also provide support and advice to between 250 and 400 women who call asking for information about what they can do.

Ms Manners said the honour was also a pat on the back for her 32-year-old son Simon, who now has a six-year-old daughter of his own.

"He was only six when I started this work and he regularly had to put up with having a mother who was on the phone all the time or taking work home with her," she said.

Wiltshire also saw several other people given honours. Simon Relph, an independent film producer and former chairman of BAFTA, who lives in Bradford-on-Avon, was awarded an CBE for service to the British film industry.

Charles Cruse, a handyman at John of Gaunt School, Trowbridge, has been given an MBE for services to education, and Peter Evans, the senior policy officer at the Countryside Agency has also received that award for services to rural craft training.

Joyce Smith, of Salisbury, has been awarded the MBE for services to the community in Durrington, and Major Mark Spandler, of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire regiment has been awarded the MBE.

Elsewhere nearby, Cirencester 's Christopher Peachey has received the MBE for services to farming and Louis Lethbridge of Faringdon has been given the MBE for services to the community in Buck-land, Oxfordshire.

Jim Brown, the former chairman of the Evening Advertiser's parent company Newsquest, has been awarded the CBE for services to the regional newspaper industry.

Shirley Mathias