Basil Bunting sat in Northumberland for sculptor Alan Thornhill, with a resulting terracotta (for bronze) in existence. The correspondence file relating to the Bunting portrait bust is held as part of the Thornhill Papers (2006:56) in the archive of the Henry Moore Foundation's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and the terracotta remains in the collection of the artist. The 1973 portrait is displayed in the Burton (2014) biography of Bunting. Mark Knopfler wrote a song, titled 'Basil', about his time as a Saturday afternoon copy boy on the Newcastle "Evening Chronicle" when Bunting worked there. The song was recorded for Knopfler's 2015 album "Tracker".