Vaste Water (Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 5)

5/169 on the cadastre · on record 1884–1923 · show on the map

The farm's own history, the grant, the original survey, sits on that page.

Farm number: No. 169
Portion: 5
On the cadastre: 5/169, portionregistered as MIDDLEWATER
District: Prince Albert
Extent, as the diagram states it: 9 morgen 520 sq roods
Modern surveyed area: 9.1 ha

The historic extent and the modern surveyed area are two separate measurements and are not presented here as confirming each other. The first is what a surveyor wrote on a diagram, usually in morgen. The second is what the modern cadastre draws.

Why this farm is here

J.D.J. Oosthuyson / O.A. Oosthuysen (reading uncertain) held it. 4 km from Klaarstroom.

J.D.J. Oosthuyson / O.A. Oosthuysen (reading uncertain) is on record on this ground directly. No trace needed.

story A written history is set on this ground Middelwater No. 169: a farm history
story A written history names this ground The portraits found at Middelwater
parcel Cut out of Middelwater
document A document in the collection describes this ground DOC-0076
…and 1 more, listed in full further down this page.

Stories

about this farm Middelwater No. 169: a farm history
From a loan farm on the Zwartberg to eight cadastral parcels: the full documented history of Middelwater No. 169 - Stretch's 1833 survey for Okert Oosthuizen, the twelve-farm grant day of 1841, the 1883 resurvey and the 1884 quitrent to J.D.J. Oosthuysen 'and another', the portions cut off for a spring called Vaste Water and a place called Avondrust, and the 1990 power-line survey whose coordinates finally put the farm on a map.
mentions this farm The portraits found at Middelwater
Two framed portrait sketches out of a loft on Klueplaas, which is ex-Middelwater ground. No names on the backing. A strong circumstantial case that they are Ockert Almero Oosthuizen and Aletta Hitge, and no evidence at all. The images are NOT published: permission has not been asked.

What the record holds, in order

24 March 1884 ownership J.D.J. Oosthuyson / O.A. Oosthuysen (reading uncertain), J.N. Botha
amended-title · confidence medium
1923 boundary change subdivision: from Middelwater
February 1923 document SG diagram A.332/1923
3007
6 February 1923 document surveyor report A.332/1923 (report)
26 April 1923 ownership Susanna Maria Klue
transfer · confidence medium

Also bordered by, as the modern cadastre draws it

Ground that touches this farm on the Surveyor-General's current polygons and that none of the diagrams held here names. Derived from the geometry, not read off a document.

Documents

Scan of Surveyor-General diagram, A.332/1923, February 1923

Surveyor-General diagram, A.332/1923, February 1923
10777883.PDF

Scan of Surveyor's report, A.332/1923 (report), 6 February 1923

Surveyor's report, A.332/1923 (report), 6 February 1923
10777885.PDF

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Surveyor-General diagram index for the whole farm — where the original survey of this ground sits.

Research notes

Cut from Middelwater; SG A.332/1923, deed 3007. Portion 5 of farm 169 - three documents agree (DOC-0076 face "Portion 5", DOC-0039 verso "169/5", DOC-0040 "Gedeelte 5"). "Vaste Water" is the spring marked on the 1883 diagram. Extent 9 morgen 520 sq roods (DOC-0076 face and DOC-0039 verso agree). [29 Jul 2026] Own diagram and beacon report: DOC-0076/DOC-0077. [TO VERIFY] Transfer date conflict is real and unresolved: 26.4.1923 (DOC-0076's own handwritten transfer line) vs 26/5/1923 (DOC-0039's typed verso), same deed 3007 - deed 3007/1923 itself would settle it. Grantee name also differs across DOC-0076/DOC-0077 - see OWN-000057/OWN-000058. [30 Jul 2026] Matched to cadastre 5/169 on the portion number, which three documents give (DOC-0076 face, DOC-0039 verso, DOC-0040). [5 Aug 2026] THE AREA DISAGREEMENT IS RESOLVED. This note read: the diagram's 9 morgen 520 sq roods is 8.45 ha against a cadastre parcel of 10.9 ha, 29% larger. 10.9 ha is GEOM_AREA/10 000, the field found on 5 Aug 2026 to be inflated by 1/cos(lat) on 429 records; the true polygon is 9.1 ha (Shape_Area), which sg_area_ha now carries. The diagram's figure runs 7.7% low against that - a large percentage on a nine-hectare parcel, where a single misread square-rood digit moves it further than any survey error would. Identity was never in doubt and still is not. [30 Jul 2026] INDEPENDENTLY CONFIRMED, not on the portion number alone: the Lo23 survey coordinates on DOC-0040, converted from Cape Datum, place servitude beacons A and C, which sit 0.73 km NE of it in portion 4 exactly as the diagram draws them against this polygon - and that diagram letters this same ground "Gedeelte 5 (Vaste Water)". Method and the full beacon test in SRC-053.

[13 Aug 2026] Renamed to the one form this model uses for every portion - the portion's own name, then the parent farm, its number and the portion in brackets - so that a name is legible in a list, a search result and a map popup without the reader having to know which farm number is which. It read "Vaste Water (Middelwater portion)" before. Nothing about the ground changed.

The research behind this page, kept separate from it: dated working notes, open questions, and what is not yet settled.

Open questions

Is Arthur Kleu the painter one of the Kleus of Klueplaas? And is Kleu the same surname as Klue? priority 3 · LEAD-0125
Frans holds a painting of MEIRINGSPOORT by ARTHUR LIONEL KLEU (1915-2008), a shopkeeper, inherited from his grandfather. Middelwater carries the werf name KLUEPLAAS. Are they one family, and are Kleu and Klue one surname?

What would settle it A common ancestor, or a Kleu/Klue baptism at Prince Albert or Klaarstroom in the nineteenth century that ties either line to the district.

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1923 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Vaste Water (Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 5) was worked as far as 1923-04-26, with Susanna Maria KlueH the last owner on record. 103 years follow with nothing. Who held it after that, and is it still one farm?

What would settle it The current title deed traced backwards, each transfer names the one before it, or the Surveyor-General's subdivision diagrams, which are what usually explain a farm going quiet.
39 years, and the ground changes hands to nobody we can follow second order · B1 succession
On Vaste Water (Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 5), J.D.J. Oosthuyson / O.A. OosthuysenH (reading uncertain) and J.N. BothaH is the last owner recorded from 1884-03-24, and the next entry is Susanna Maria KlueH from 1923-04-26, 39 years later, with no person in common. DOC-0076 records the later arrival but not the 39 years before it.

What would settle it The Deeds Office transfer register for this farm between 1884 and 1923. A transfer names its predecessor in title, so one deed closes the whole gap.

Found by breaks.py reading the model against itself, not written by hand, each one is a shape of missing record, not a fault in the data. The whole set is on the questions page.