Black Stitchel is the popular name of a conical hill,Northumberland National Park "Prehistory", p49 . Accessed 11 Sept 2014 located in the parish of Hepple, Northumberland, in the region known as Bishop's Waltham Moors.Explore Britain. Accessed 11 Sept 2014William Atkins, The Moor: Lives, Landscape, Literature, Faber, 2014
The hill inspired a poem by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, published in his 1918 collection, Whin. It was set to music in 1920 by Gibson's friend Ivor Gurney and has become part of the baritone's concert repertoireBarbara Doscher (ed. John Nix) From Studio to Stage: Repertoire for the Voice, Scarecrow Press, 2002, p 32. Accessed 11 Sept 2014 The Listener said that, in this song, "Wilfrid Gibson's lines are given an exact counterpart of freedom and intimacy". It was one of several of Gibson's poems set by Gurney. The song has been recorded by Roderick Williams, Michael George and others. Another setting was composed by John Jeffreys for tenor and has been recorded by Ian Bostridge.
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