Katie Wilson's handmade, walking newsletter has come to an end. After more than four years and over 150 editions gathered on foot, Katie is closing this chapter with gratitude and honesty. "I shall really miss it, and engaging with the local shops in Hitchin. I don't really want to stop — but something inside is telling me it's time," she says.

A neighbourhood project grown on the pavement

What began as a simple way to share local news and practical notices became a steady thread through Hitchin's streets. Katie walked Market Place, Sun Street, Bancroft, Bucklersbury and Hermitage Road, stopping at counters and doorways to collect small updates: new openings, staff shout‑outs, community events and the everyday kindnesses that make a town feel like home. The newsletter was deliberately handmade and face to face, built on conversations rather than clicks.

The quizzes and the honesty that kept people reading

Readers loved the little quizzes that turned shopfronts and street corners into friendly puzzles and sparked cheerful chats at the counter. Those light moments sat alongside a clear commitment to honesty: stories gathered in person, reported with care, and shared without exaggeration. That straightforward approach built trust and made the newsletter a reliable, human voice in local life.

Why it's ending

After years of walking, writing and delivering, Katie has chosen to stop. This decision is not from lack of love but from a sense that the project has run its natural course. Ending now protects the integrity of the work and creates space for rest, fresh rhythms and new voices to emerge. Katie's openness about the difficulty of stopping is part of the same honesty that shaped the newsletter from the start.

Thanks and what remains

The newsletter worked because Hitchin welcomed it. Shopkeepers opened their doors, staff and volunteers shared quick updates, and neighbours stopped to say hello. Those relationships remain. The habit of noticing, the courage to walk and the small acts of community care that the newsletter celebrated will continue in other forms.

Katie's walking will go on even if the editions do not. For everyone who read, shared, answered a quiz or offered a story at the counter — thank you. The pages close; the gratitude does not.