The area was sparsely populated until after the Second World War, though excavations have revealed evidence of Paleolithic and Iron Age activity in Southcote, as well as Roman and Saxon habitation.

A large proportion of the land in Southcote not used for housing is classified as flood-meadow, providing flood plains between urbanisation and the River Kennet.

The name "Southcote", comparable to that of neighbouring Norcot, originates from the Old English "suth cote",[6] meaning "south[ern] cottage".

[12] An excavation of Southcote Manor in the 1960s uncovered many Roman, Romano-British and medieval artefacts such as sherds and pottery; a sample of the latter was discovered to have originated in Oxford in the 2nd century.

[10] Later inhabitation of Southcote was discovered at Anslow's Cottages south of the Kennet, where excavation suggests that a Bronze Age waterfront was made on a branch of the river.

[15] A 1991 report by the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England—now known as English Heritage—detailed the discovery of fragments of twined basketry at Anslow's Cottages, showing that eel or fish traps were used on the river near Southcote.

[17] Later discoveries, made in the 1980s during gravel extraction in the area, also uncovered evidence of a landing stage or jetty on the river channel.

[13] The settlement was documented in the Domesday Book as Sudcote with a total population of 13 households, consisting of five villagers and eight smallholders, though a manor house is not mentioned.

[23][25] After the death of Sambourne's son, Drew, an inquisition reported in contradiction that the manor was held by the Abbot of Reading; in their work on the Berkshire section of Victoria County History, Peter Ditchfield and William Henry Page write that at this point "the correct tenure had evidently been lost".

At the time of the English Civil War, during the siege of Reading in 1643, the Blagraves allowed Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex to use the manor as his headquarters.

[19] The Blagrave family, who were sympathetic to the Roundheads, are said to have hosted Oliver Cromwell, John Hampden and Robert Blake for a council of war in one of the house's oak panelled rooms.

In 1813, Daniel and Samuel Lysons wrote that the manor and mansion house were unoccupied but remained the property of the Blagrave family, who at that point resided at nearby Calcot Park.

Along with one of his labourers, James Wastel[nb 1] Brisco was taken to court in Reading in 1874, charged with the "assault with intent to ravish" a 13-year-old servant girl.

Henry died in 1927, though the manor house was demolished in 1921[13][19][38] after lying empty following the death of Wastel Brisco and his wife Sarah in 1891 and 1901 respectively.

An Ordnance Survey map of 1914 shows the majority of land as agricultural (farms and nurseries) with a number of gravel pits and smithies.

[43][44] An Ordnance Survey map of 1938 shows greater provision for the population (as opposed to industry); some of the gravel pits no longer existed and Presentation College, a boys' school, had opened in two large Victorian buildings—Rotherfield Grange and Oakland Hall, the latter a suburban villa built in the 1870s.

[52] The residents of many of these had moved from houses in central and east Reading that fell short of sanitation requirements of the Public Health Act 1875, were compulsorily purchased and later demolished.

[89] Southcote Park Estate, a large area of semi-detached housing on unadopted roads built in 1933, has an elected volunteer committee.

[98][99] The geology of Southcote includes the Reading Formation—rock strata in the Lambeth Group consisting of clay, silt and sand formed in the Palaeogene period.

[101] A map produced by the Geological Survey of Great Britain in 1860 identifies the area as being predominantly Plastic Clay (now known as the Lambeth Group) and chalk north of the river, with flint and gravel samples typical of the Bagshot Formation south of the Kennet.

Development to the south of Southcote is restricted by the Holy Brook and the Great Western Main Line, and although the land is used for recreation,[114] proposals are occasionally put forward to build housing on the floodplains.

[121] The site is recognised by Reading Borough Council as an area of wildlife and historical interest,[121] and examples of elm, walnut, ash, horse chestnut and sycamore trees grow there.

Other flora found at the site include nettle, bramble and elder, with flowers such as lesser celandine, bluebells and Queen Anne's lace appearing in the spring.

The 1888 Kelly's Directory lists some residents of Southcote Lane as being employed as coachmen, butlers, gardeners, labourers, florists, dairy farmers, thatchers and carters.

[146] Residents identified nuisance and illegal parking and excessive speed as of concern in the area, as well as the antisocial use of mini motos, quad bikes and motorcycles on the Kennet towpath.

[152][153] Other NHS facilities in Southcote include Prospect Park Hospital (catering for in-patient mental health and psychiatric intensive care)[154] and the Dutchess of Kent Hospice, which is also part of the Sue Ryder group.

[159] A number of community organisations, such as an elderly residents' social club,[160] litter picking groups,[89] and allotments[161] are in existence in the area.

Reading's RESCUE (Rivers and Environmental Spaces Clean-Up Event), a rural litter-picking initiative, operates periodically in the parks and along the tracks and towpaths in Southcote.

[42] There are a number of Brunel-designed brick arch bridges along the Reading to Taunton line through Southcote, two of which have been described as "notably well preserved examples"[164] and are designated "heritage assets" by Network Rail.

[116] A third bridge, which carries the main Burghfield to Reading road, may have originally been timber before being replaced with a steel deck by the Great Western Railway company.