Part of Middelwater

Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 3

· show on the map

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

Farm number: No. 169
Portion: 3
District: Prince Albert
Modern surveyed area: 3544.8 ha

Why this farm is here

Ground a written history is set on. 10 km from Klaarstroom.

story A written history is set on this ground Middelwater's story since 1777
parcel Cut out of Middelwater
border Shares a boundary with Rondabel Rondabel
lead An open question in this record is about this ground Was Middelwater Portion 3 known as Droge Kloof?

Stories

about this farm Middelwater's story since 1777
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.

Before this ground was cut out

This is the history of Middelwater, the farm this ground was cut from, on a date the record does not give. It is shown here because this ground was that farm, and separately from what follows because before the cut the record says the farm's name and not which part of it. Not everything below necessarily happened on this piece.

1777/1860 boundary subdivision: from De Claar Stroom (the 1777 loan farm)
1777/1860 boundary subdivision: becomes Middelwater
1777/1860 boundary same_as: becomes De Claar Stroom (Klaarstroom No. 178)
1777 event De Claar Stroom loan farm granted parent farm of Middelwater and Klaarstroom This is PAR-000097, Klaarstroom No. 178. The loan farm itself is PAR-000004.
1821~ to 188X ownership Cornelis Andries Oosthuizen (1792-06-14–1860) occupation · confidence medium
1821~ residence Cornelis Andries Oosthuizen (1792-06-14–1860) farming
1822 ownership Jan Louis Venter (1754–1824), Johanna Jacomina Smit (1760–1824) loan farm · occupation · confidence high
1822 residence Jan Louis Venter (1754–1824) tax roll
1833 boundary consolidation: becomes Drooge Kloof
1833-08 document SG diagram 349/1833 Bf.W.Q.5-7
1833 to 1841-04-15 ownership Ockert Almero Oosthuizen (1786-04-24–1859-02-26) loan farm · occupation · confidence high
1836-11-27 residence Ockert Almero Oosthuizen (1836-11-27–1922-01-02) birth/farming
1836 residence Susanna Catharina Oosthuizen (b.1819) (1819-05-31–1856-09-24) farming
1841-04-15 ownership owner not named in the record Perpetual Quitrent · grant · confidence medium
1850~ residence Cornelis Andries Oosthuizen (b.1828) (1828–1871-04-24) farming
1860-02-18 residence Johanna Machteld Petronella Strydom (1792-01-05–1860-02-18) farming · to 1860-02-18
1865 event The 1865 drought: watering the Middelwater orange grove from vats So dry that Jan Adriaan Oosthuizen, then living on Middelwater (PAR-000001), watered the orange grove before the house with wagon and vats so the trees would not die; the only water left stood in the heights toward Kouwveldt at the steep drift. His grandson's diary carries it, from his son's telling - the only picture of daily life on Middelwater in the 1860s this record holds.
1865~ residence Johannes Adriaan Oosthuizen (1816-11-20–1882-08-11) memoir
1883 boundary subdivision: becomes Klein Vlei (Middelwater portion)
1883-10 document SG diagram 1364/1883 P.A.Q.3-3
1883 document SG diagram verso 1364/1883 (verso)
1884-03-24 ownership Jacobus Daniel Johannes Oosthuizen (1823-09-02–1903-06-11), Oosthuysen co-owner (unidentified) quitrent · grant · confidence high
1923 boundary subdivision: becomes Vaste Water (Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 5)
1926 boundary subdivision: becomes Avondrust (Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 6)
1988-07/1989-08 document SG diagram L.G. 6955-90 K.354/96
1990 document SG diagram L.G. 6954/90 K.354/96s
19XX boundary subdivision: becomes Rietfontein
undated boundary remainder: becomes Moreson (Middelwater No. 169 Remainder)
undated boundary subdivision: becomes Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 1
undated boundary subdivision: becomes Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 2
undated boundary subdivision: becomes Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 3
undated boundary subdivision: becomes Ebeneser (Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 4)
undated boundary subdivision: becomes Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 7
undated boundary subdivision: becomes Remainder (Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 2)

What the record holds, in order

undated boundary change subdivision: from Middelwater

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.

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

[30 Jul 2026] Cadastre label 3/169, 4251.4 ha. The largest piece ever cut off Middelwater - 4,251 ha, two fifths of the original farm - and in the Surveyor-General's cadastre only. No document we hold names it: absent from the 1883 verso deduction table (DOC-0039) and from the 1989 servitude map (DOC-0040), whose own list of what the farm then consisted of runs Gedeelte 4, 5, 6 and the Restant.

[31 Jul 2026] IT HAS A HOUSE ON IT. Frans's homestead coordinate for DROGE KLOOF (PLC-000035) falls inside this portion. The piece the paperwork does not mention is not empty ground, and it has a name attached to it. See LEAD-0023.

[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 "Middelwater Portion 3" 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

Was Middelwater Portion 3 known as Droge Kloof? priority 1 · LEAD-0023
Portion 3 is 4,251 ha, two fifths of the original Middelwater, and no document we hold names it. A homestead called Droge Kloof stands on it. Is that the portion's name, and who took it off the farm, and when?

What would settle it A diagram or deed naming the portion. The cadastre already gives it a key (3/169), so the SG holds a diagram for it - ordering that one sheet probably answers the whole question.

What the record is missing

Nobody is on record as ever having held this third order · B8 never-held
Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 3 is in the model and drawn on the map, and carries no ownership record of any kind, not a grant, not a transfer, not an occupation.

What would settle it The Surveyor-General's diagram for the farm number names the grantee and the date; the deed reference on it opens the transfer chain.

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.