On Tuesday evenings between 7pm and 8pm, residents of Kenilworth may have noticed a large gaggle of women walking together – many wearing their high vis jackets and arm bands, many laughing or deep in conversations with their walking companions.

This is the Kenilworth Walking Women, a weekly walking group for women organised by Kenilworth local, Tina Baxter in January 2024.

This January the group celebrated their first year of walking together and to mark the occasion, they were joined on their walk by PCSO Angi Gavin from Warwickshire Police, to talk about personal safety.

Angi informed the group about an app where people can log areas where they don't feel safe walking, which will then be visited and reviewed by Angi's team, to assess what they can do to make that area safer.

The Kenilworth Walking Women has become a weekly event for many of the 40 to 60 women who regularly join the walks.

Many friendships have been formed through the group (image supplied)

With new walkers joining every week from near and far, the walk offers something different to each walker – for some it's as an opportunity to spend an hour a week catching up with a friend, while for others it's a fantastic way of making make new friends.

For some who work at home, it's an opportunity to be with people and get some steps in, and for others it's a great way of walking in the dark evenings, with safety in numbers!

At every walk there will be much laugher, sometime tears and many stories shared, listened to and confided in.

Many good friendships have been formed and support given by the amazing ladies who come along. 

Walkers can join whenever suits them, they can just turn up at 7pm at Abbey Fields car park on a Tuesday evening, and know there will always be a group of women waiting to walk together.

Around 60 women join every week (image supplied)

The group walk all year round, rain or shine, and when the evenings get lighter, they enjoy walking across the beautiful countryside around Kenilworth castle. Once the 3-mile walk is complete many of the walkers head to the pub for a quick drink.

This is a great opportunity to get to know each other better, share stories, talk about their week and discuss ideas for the next social event.

They've enjoyed several social events together so far, including their first Christmas party, several visits to the Talisman theatre and their summer picnic in the park. 

Group organiser Tina Baxter said: "Our group Facebook now has over 2000 members so I feel sure there are some women who would love to join us but might be a bit shy, or nervous to come along.

"To these ladies I would like to assure them that they will receive a warm welcome from all our lovely friendly walking ladies, many of whom have faced the same fears but are very glad they finally came along.

"Our group includes ladies of all ages, backgrounds, shapes and sizes, it's a safe space to walk, chat, laugh and just be together."

Find out more on the website here.

The group has celebrated its first anniversary (image supplied)