Housed in a building dating from 1718, this was originally the town’s waterworks, later a soup kitchen, a public toilet, an antique shop and from May 2018, the area’s first micropub. At the time of the carefully managed conversion, the bases for two soup containers were discovered and remain uncovered to view, these date from 1907. Its earlier use as the town's water pumping station is thought to involve a wheel powered by two horses.

Eight beers are sourced from a variety of breweries, all within 30 miles of Rye, ciders are similarly local. It has its own brewery (and tap room) a mile away in Playden and the pub always offers a range of beers from it.

Home made pork pies and Scotch eggs are available. The Sunday lunchtime Cheese Club has strict rules - “Bring cheese, eat cheese, no cheese, hard cheese, you’re not in the Club!" The pub is on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ryewaterworks/?hl=en.

From the start the pub has won a number of CAMRA Branch awards. More recent of these were it being judged Cider Pub of the Year in 2023 and in 2024 runner up. Also in 2024 it was LocAle Pub of the Year. The presentation pictures above show landlord David accepting each of these awards.