Mortune took its name in the Domesday Book from the houses on the ridge above the moor of Hakka's Brook (now known as the Hagbourne or Hadden Marsh), and was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes.

Huse or Bray is a recently renovated low building nearby, with a paddock in front, at the T-junction at the east end of the village.

[citation needed] The Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist at Bethesda, with its possibly Saxon doorway, stands by ancient earthworks at the southwestern edge of the village, by a ford on the former pilgrim route from the Downs to Dorchester.

[5] In a central position on the High Street, South Moreton has a Strict Baptist chapel which has three services a week.

Formerly owned by Wadworth Brewery, it was saved from demolition and redevelopment in the late 2010s by the South Moreton Community Benefit Society who lobbied the district council to designate the building as an Asset of Community Value and reject a planning application to convert it to housing.

At the time of the building of the Great Western Railway, the fit young "navvies" (originally "navigators") offered cash for lodgings, so many more of the village cottages were opened as public houses.

Cholsey railway station is equally close and is served by the line between Reading, Didcot Parkway and Oxford.