Parish Cake - Winter 2019

Sissinghurstspotlight
Transforming
Sissinghurst’s Pub
IT’S BEEN a “steep learning curve” for
globetrotting couple
AFTER travelling the world catering
for the tastes of everyone from royalty to
Wimbledon tennis fans, Sarah Allchorne
has turned around the fortunes of a
Sissinghurst pub.
Together with her New Zealand-born
husband, chef Dane, the once tired and
unloved Bull, was transformed into a dining
pub with rooms and changed its name to
The Milkhouse in 2013.
Starting with a course at Prue Leith’s –
the Great British Bake Off judge’s cookery
school – Sarah met her husband-to-be while
they both worked for catering company By
Word of Mouth. They married in 2006 and
have three children.
Her career took her to Merrill Lynch as
international events director, heading a
team which organised events all over the
globe.
In 2011 Sarah’s parents, who live in Kent,
told the couple about the closure of the
Bull, the only pub in Sissinghurst, and after
negotiating for two years with Enterprise
Inns, they signed the lease.
In 2016, the couple saved another pub
– The Barrow House in Egerton – which
was “empty and really sad”. It too has been
transformed on the lines of the Milkhouse.
Sarah said: “You have to take a new
view of pubs, making them attractive to a
much broader range of people, those who
come to dine and families with children.
We have a similar business model with
accommodation, dining and garden and the
same ethos at The Barrow House - a home
from home feel.”
She added: “It has been a huge learning
curve and we did it together which was very
important.” TF
New Rector for
Sissinghurst &
Frittenden
FATHER OF three, the Rev Pete
Deaves, has been appointed the
new rector of Sissinghurst and
Frittenden.
He is expected to take up his
new post in February 2020 and
fills the position left by the Rev
Fred Olney who retired in the
summer.
The interview panel consisted of four churchwardens and three
clergy including the Rev Ann Pollington, vicar of St. Dunstan’s
Cranbrook. Their decision was unanimous.
The Rev Deaves is currently assistant curate of Holy Trinity,
Rudgwick, near Horsham. Married to Claire, a primary school
teacher, they have three children.
Brought up in Bookham, Surrey, the Rev Deaves spent three
years in Minsk, Belarus, and Astana, Kazakstan, learning Russian
and teaching English. Apart from a short time in a paper factory,
he has always worked in education or alongside families.
Cycling is his favourite way of getting around and he would “love
to get better at keeping chickens”. TF
Parish Cake • Winter 2019 33